HOBBS V The Storm On The Horizon
by Peter Gao
Summary: The crew of the Vanguard must do all they can to prevent a devestating attack on Earth, and this time, it might not be so easy.


**HOBBS V – The Storm on the Horizon**

**T**he USS Malta is a very old yet prestigious Excelsior Class ship. Its motto is simple: To protect the Federation. In the 2290s, when it was still captained by the decorated Captain Nantili, its fame has not yet found its foot. Instead, it had to work its way up, through as many as half a dozen captains. It was the latest captain, one Captain Freeman, who raised the fame of this ship to the heights it's at today. In the tales of Starfleet it is told of a ship, a simple, ordinary ship, which single handedly took out an entire squadron of Dominion fighters. Captain Freeman would probably say that that's a lie plain and simple, and if it weren't for that Tholian trader, they would've all died.

Captain Freeman is an interesting man, as many of his colleagues would say. He has his daily drink of tea, which no one knew the flavor of. His command style was a tad strange too. He would call out the orders, of course, just like any other captain. But he's not looking to see whether you've done it or not. He even proposed the rule that officers on his bridge shouldn't waste time saying the exact same thing he just said, like "fire phasers" being followed by the tactical officer repeating that same phrase. He thought that, if they didn't follow up, they die, their fault, he shouldn't worry over it, that's for damn sure.

For the last years of the 2370s, the Malta lived out its life normally, taking care of a border dispute here, a little trade embargo there, nothing important. Then, about 3 months ago, it received a message from Starfleet saying that they were to go to the Briar Patch. Captain Freeman asked why, but was not given an answer. Instead, all Starfleet had to say was "Look out for strange black ships."

To this day, Freeman hasn't seen any black ships yet. And because of that, he's a little disappointed. He knows what's happening tomorrow, his crew knows what's happening tomorrow. For the past 50 years he had commanded the Malta, and prestigious as it was, all good things must come to an end. Tomorrow, the Malta is getting decommissioned.

Captain Freeman laid low in his ready room for most of the evening before the big event. The crew, especially his first officer, Commander Tara, thought that it's good if they comforted him a bit. But every time they try, Freeman would tell them to get the hell out. It was not like him, they all say. Then again, almost all of the crew know why he's acting like this: suddenly getting rid of a ship that one has spend 50 years on is probably like a punch in the guts. So, for the rest of the evening, they left him alone.

Freeman paced in his ready room, thinking and thinking about ways to stop his ship being decommissioned. He knew what was going to happen. He knew that the Vanguard A, fresh from spacedock after its adventures with Garibaldi and Boltini would swoop in tomorrow and "take over". Freeman had looked over the Vanguard's logs, and thought them to be a good crew, what with going back in time and facing Boltini and all that good stuff. He sat down on his chair and gazed out of the window at the orange and red colors of the Briar Patch. He remembers his encounter with Boltini, it was short but eventful that's for sure. His mind started to drift…

"Sir, can you please come to the bridge?" Said a voice through the comm. system.

"Coming." Said Freeman as he got up. He took a last look out of his window and walked out the door.

"Sir," said Commander Tara, "We're getting a strange signal from the nebula ahead of us, there."

"What kind of signal?"

"Unknown, it's unlike anything we've seen."

"Well, that's just odd." He turned his head to Ops. "Lieutenant, launch a probe."

"Yes sir."

Freeman watched as a small dot emerged from the bottom of the viewscreen. The probe edged closer and closer to the cloud, until at last it disappeared.

"Still getting telemetry, it looks like a fairly normal gas cloud." Reported the lieutenant at Ops.

The bridge crew waited for a bit, the ops lieutenant still reported normal status.

"Hold on," he said. "I've lost telemetry."

"What do you mean, lost?" Inquired Freeman.

He got his answer right away. The ship shook beneath his feet and he turned around to face the viewscreen. The words "black ships" swam into his mind as a whole fleet of them emerged from the clouds.

"They're charging weapons!"

"Red Alert! Battle stations! Full power to engines and shields, get us out of here!"

A barrage of torpedoes struck the Malta, blowing a good-sized chunk of the saucer off of the ship. Freeman lost his balance and fell to the floor. He could see his crew stumbling around as barrage after barrage of torpedoes hit the ship that he had called home.

"I've lost helm control!"

"I'm reading micro breaches across the warp core!"

Freeman didn't pay attention to any of this, something was happening to him. He can hear a hissing sound somewhere, and he was feeling a bit light-headed. He couldn't quite connect those two together however. Before he closed his eyes he focused on the view screen. Those are definitely the strange black ships, he thought, and there are way too many of them…

---

The USS Hercules was the first ship to detect the oncoming wave of invaders. They were a science scout vessel, and had no idea who they were. It didn't take long however, for a crewman to speak up about their ship's similarity to that massive behemoth and attacked the Earth's moon and stole the Trilithium a couple of weeks earlier. The ship quickly hailed Starfleet Command to let them know of the oncoming wave of destruction.

At Earth, the news was received gravely. Many of the Admirals who answered the call knew what's happening, and knew that the Malta must have been destroyed. Admiral Janeway was the first to speak up, saying that they don't have much time and that there is only one thing to do: Fight.

In a mere hour, every ship around the Federation was told of the incoming threat. It was the fastest response time the Federation had every witnessed. By the time the Kraal fleet reached the Sol system, more than 1500 ships had gathered in Earth orbit. The Siege of Sector 001, as it was later called, marked the beginning of the devastating Kraal Wars.

Even though the number of Federation ships outweighed the Kraal ships 3 to 1, the Siege lasted for more than 3 days, with the Federation side loosing almost 1200 ships. But in the end, Starfleet won and destroyed all Kraal ships within the system.

Some had thought of this as the end, one little skirmish. Those involved with Starfleet knew better, they knew that this was just the beginning. Within weeks Kraal ships struck Betazed and Vulcan, heavily depleting what little fleets they had had. But in all of this, Starfleet and other neighboring system helped to ensure that the Kraal did not gain a strong hold outside the Briar Patch. Their close allies, the Klingons and the Romulans, contributed efforts as well. This process of skirmishes continued for more than 7 months after the initial invasion of the Solar System, killing close to 100 billion people in the process. By the end of it, Starfleet had had enough.

A fleet with ships totaling to 2000 headed for the Kraal base in the Briar Patch, an area of space that no Federation starship has traversed since the war started. They entered the Briar Patch and knew right away that they would have a disadvantage. The ships trudged on through the gas clouds, and without warning entered a large cavity in the nebula. There, they saw what appeared to be the main Kraal base. The battle waged for many hours, with half of the fleet destroyed in the process. But at the end, Starfleet won out. The Kraal base was destroyed.

Not much was known overall of the Kraal culture, or if there even was one. It is often that any prisoners caught would've been executed, and any engagement usually started with weapons fire; not many people have seen them, most people don't plan to.

For the next few months, random Kraal ships would appear out of nowhere and proceed to attack ships. Even minor Kraal vessels posed a threat. These were assumed to be survivors of the massive effort in getting rid of them. And to this day, a full year after the Malta was destroyed; Starfleet is still hunting them down. And to this end, they've made massive progress. Many people across the Alpha and Beta quadrants have hailed Starfleet and their allies as protectors of peace. Some, like Admiral Hawthorne, didn't quite like this title. "They have no idea what we had to do to protect peace." She used to say.

There was still a corner of space that Starfleet worried about however, and that was the Briar Patch. Ever since the massive battle in the nebula there have been a ship guarding the area, making sure that the Kraal doesn't come back and establish another base. For the past 3 weeks, this ship was the USS Vanguard A.

---

"You guys know the rules." Said Mcmac as he dealt the cards.

"Sure do." Said NAH.

Poker night has become a tradition with some of the senior staff of the Vanguard. Every weekend, PG, NAH, Mcmac, Kaitz, and EWDEE would have their game in one of their quarters.

"Aw nuts…aw nuts…aw nuts…aw nu-"

"You know, PG," Said NAH. "You gotta learn some subtleness."

"No kidding." Said Kaitz. "Saying 'aw nuts' after getting handed a card doesn't bode well for a Poker player."

"Or any other card player." Snickered Mcmac.

They played in silence. Once in a while some of the players would look out the window at the swirling clouds of the Briar Patch.

"You know," said EWDEE. "This feels weird."

"I know. NAH is winning."

"No, not that…although that is weird."

"Jealous?" Said NAH with a crooked eye.

"You wish." Replied EWDEE smartly. "It's just that, we're out here in the Briar Patch, hunting for Kraal ships, and here we are, playing poker."

"It's tradition!" Said PG, gazing gravely at his cards.

"I guess…"

"Oh oh!" Said NAH triumphantly.

"Not again!"

"No, not yet, I just remembered I got a letter from my sister."

"Oh right, Ms. NAH, how is she?" Asked Kaitz.

"She's fine; I lent her some Tribbles as companions."

"You WHAT!"

"I know, they don't seem to like her very much."

"Maybe she's a Klingon." Said Mcmac, amidst laughter.

"Speaking of letters," Said EWDEE as she took a card from the deck. "I got one a couple of weeks ago from Boltini."

"Oh yeah, what's up with him lately?"

"Not much, still living comfortably in San Francisco. Says he's lonely."

"Well, I don't think he should complain too much," said PG. "I mean, it wasn't that long ago when Starfleet decided to get rid of that 'call us once a day' thing with him."

"True…" Said EWDEE. She wavered a bit.

"Is something wrong?"

"Well, he seemed a little off."

"He's been a little off all year."

"Yeah, I've told him to go to a counselor, but he won't listen."

"I don't blame him, I wouldn't see those people. They scare me." Said PG.

"That's only because they'll find too many faults in you."

"Oh quiet…"

"Heh…"

They once again played in silence for a while. Before long, they were beginning to stress out: NAH was winning, by too much.

"Did you guys feel something?" Said Mcmac.

"Oh no," Said NAH. "You're not stopping me from winning this round."

"Wait, I think I felt something too…" Said PG.

Mcmac took out his Tricorder and scanned the room. Everything seemed fine. He looked around; there was nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until every light source in the room failed.

"What the hell?" Cried EWDEE.

PG grabbed his phaser and starred at his tricorder: it was offline.

"Mcmac?" Yelled Kaitz.

There was no answer.

Then, just as sudden, the lights came back on. EWDEE tried to walk but quickly fell over the unconscious Mcmac. She picked herself up and felt his pulse.

"He's alive, computer, side-to-side transport!"

---

Captain Hawthorne was talking to Anna about an ache in her side when an unconscious Mcmac beamed into sickbay. Anna quickly ran to him only to find that he is awake. Not long after, PG, NAH, Kaitz, and EWDEE burst into the room.

"Is he alright?" Asked Kaitz.

"Everything seems normal to me." Said Anna as she scanned Mcmac. "There's nothing wrong with him."

"Then how the hell can he just suddenly become unconscious like that?" Asked NAH incredulously.

"No idea." Said Anna and folded up her tricorder.

"Are you sure?" Asked the Captain.

"I'm sure."

"How did you feel Mcmac?" Asked EWDEE as she too, started scanning him.

"Well, all the lights went out, and then I just blanked out."

"Did you see anything, hear anything?"

"Not really."

"That's just odd." Said PG.

"Indeed."

They all stood there in silence as each and every one of them tried to think of a reason for Mcmac's unexplained fainting.

"Bridge to Hawthorne."

"Hawthorne here."

"I'm receiving a transmission from Starfleet, they want to talk to you and Captain Adam."

---

Jason walked comfortably down the streets of San Francisco. Despite the war over head, Earth still seemed like the Utopia that it's almost always been. It's a world where Jason fits, somehow, despite the fact that most of his life was spent in the shadow of a madman. He made his way to a street corner and looked around. This was a big city, and even those who've lived here their whole lives could get lost. He turned left and continued down the lane towards Keyser's house.

Keyser still hasn't completely healed from the removal of the chip in his head. He knows he never will. He also knows that living in a sturdy house in the middle of San Francisco is a good thing…the good thing being the sturdy house. In fact, he hasn't been out of the house for 3 months now. He knows that it's not worth it. Not worth the hateful stares he would get from the citizens around him, the abuse, the name-calling even. He couldn't take it, that on top of his weakness.

Jason continued to head for Keyser's house, thinking all the time about his condition, how, in a matter of months he had turned from a vibrant, confident person, albeit a little weak, to a hermit. He would always thank Jason for his generosity as he came to visit him once a week. Said that he knew, down deep, that he would grow up to become an impressive young man, and that he was always sorry for what he had done to him. Jason can never forget how Keyser treated him, and in a way he can never forgive him either. Still, the look of his old man brought pity to him, and that's as good as real love in his opinion.

Jason cursed under his breath about the bad luck Keyser seem to get these days, how he still suffers despite his freedom from Garibaldi. He barely noticed that he had walked past Keyser's door.

He went up the small steps and knocked on the titanium doors. There was no answer.

"Dad!" He shouted, but a silence remained.

He knocked more vigorously on the door, and to his horror it feel over into the house. He gingerly walked in, and couldn't quite comprehend what he was seeing: there were burn marks across the walls, some of the stairs were gone. Splinters of wood lay across the floor. Jason went into the living room, and found Keyser's chair broken in two. Keyser was nowhere to be found.

Jason took out his tricorder, which is pretty much the only technology that he carries these days. He scanned the room. There was nothing unusual, no extra life signs, in fact, no life signs at all. Keyser wasn't here.

"Dad!" He shouted again, and again there was no answer.

Jason thought for a moment. He could always go to Starfleet and tell them about this. But on the other hand, why would they care about Keyser? It's best if I went to someone I can trust, he thought.

Jason picked up the door and fitted onto its hinges. He looked around, thought for a moment and decided to go to the one person that, although he really didn't know, felt like someone who he had known for his whole life.

---

The senior crew of the Vanguard gathered around the teardrop shaped table of the conference room. There was a depressing mood in the air, as if someone close had died. The staff sat in silence for a while, starring at each other in turn but not really connecting. Something was wrong.

Just as the atmosphere of the conference room was getting tense, a grim faced CaptH accompanied by a sullen Adam entered.

"What's up?" Said NAH.

CaptH sighed. "Starfleet, in its infinite wisdom," she said sarcastically. "Has decided to split this crew up."

There was a sharp silence that followed this.

"What?" Said Kaitz, open-mouthed.

"Starfleet has decided to give Adam here a new ship, and he's suppose to take some of the senior staff with him," CaptH said morosely. "It's supposed to help him 'fit in' better."

"What the hell does that mean!" Said PG.

"I know how you feel PG, I don't like it any better." Said CaptH.

"Who's he taking?" Asked TC.

"Starfleet thinks that PG, NAH, Kaitz, and Nibbles will serve well on this new ship." Said Adam.

Disbelief was in their eyes. This must be a bad joke. Anytime now Adam and CaptH were going to burst out laughing.

"Pack your bags." Said CaptH as she sat down on her chair. "Let's not make this any more difficult than it already is."

"But," said NAH. "How could they! Don't they know we work better together!"

"It's their decision."

"But it's ridiculous!"

"I know!" CaptH said furiously. "I understand! I want to keep this family together for as long as possible."

"Then do it!" Yelled Vanessa. "Complain to Starfleet! Tell Admiral Janeway! Let them see sense!"

"Why are they splitting us up anyway!" Said TC angrily.

"Random Kraal ships are appearing more frequently." Said Adam. "They need all the ships they can muster, and that means they need more captains."

"And I guess this ship is too small for two captains." Spat CaptH.

The staff went silent. They all just sat there, motionless. They didn't know what to make of it. They didn't want to know what to make of it.

"Get ready, Adam's ship arrives in two hours." CaptH said.

"But…"

"Dismissed."

"Captain!"

"I said dismissed!"

The staff got up and filed out one by one. This was the worst thing that's ever happened to them, worse then being pounded by Keyser or Boltini, or being shot back in time. It's worse than all of that.

"Anna, Vanessa, and BASIC, stay please." CaptH said.

"Ma'am?" Said Vanessa.

"Starfleet has informed me that Anna is being transferred to Starfleet Medical, and you two are being transferred to Starfleet Engineering." CaptH said very quickly, looking at them with tired eyes.

They starred at her in horror. "Captain!" Said BASIC. "How can you let them do this to us! Aren't we a celebrated crew or something!"

"Starfleet is trying to be impartial. Celebrated or not the Vanguard is still part of the fleet."

They were all speechless. BASIC opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, trying to say something back, but nothing came out.

"Dismissed."

CaptH hanged her head in sadness, she never thought she would see this day when her crew, her friends, her family would be split up like this, as if it was done as a technicality, nothing special.

CaptH felt a hand on her shoulder and realized that Adam never left. She heard the squeaking of his chair as he sat down beside her.

"I need to tell you something." He said.

"Can it wait?"

"Not really."

CaptH sighed. "Alright, what is it?"

"Do you remember, captain, what happened a year ago?"

CaptH starred into Adam's face, studying it. She knew automatically what he was talking about and yet has no idea what he was about to say, and what it could mean.

"I know I haven't talked about it for a year, but seeing that I'm leaving…"

"Adam,"

"No, please captain." Adam said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it Adam."

"Do you forgive me?"

"Of course."

"Are you sure?"

CaptH wavered for a moment. "Yes, yes Adam, I'm sure. I've thought about it and I would probably do the same thing."

Adam breathed a silent breath of relief.

"Now," said CaptH. "Come on, let's not make this day too depressing."

She got up and stretched out her hand. "Holodeck?"

Adam smiled. "Sure, why not."

---

"You know," said PG. "If you cleaned your room once in a while this would be much faster."

"Yeah, but it won't be very fun." Said NAH. "See?"

PG turned around on the spot and starred at an old photo of NAH and his sister that NAH was holding up. She was pretty, and she and NAH seemed to be in London.

"Ah yes, Ms. NAH." Said PG as he picked up a shirt from the floor and put it into a box.

For the past hour PG had been helping NAH clean his room and pack his things, having packed his own things in under 15 minutes. The hour wasn't all used for cleaning, no; at least half of the time was spent on reminiscing.

PG walked over to NAH's closet and opened it up, and was almost completely buried in a mountain of Tribbles.

"Help!" He muffled.

"Oops," said NAH with an embarrassed smile. "Guess they got into my food rations."

PG slowly crawled out of the Tribble pile. "What are we gonna do with them?"

"Let me handle it." Said NAH. "Alright," he said to the lead Tribble. "Listen, take the gradole to the juler and send the wartor for a little fresh air, got it?"

"I'll never understand that Tribble language of yours." Said PG as he picked up another shirt from the ground.

"It was made that way." Said NAH as he watched the Tribbles "march" their way out of his quarters.

PG straightened up and tossed the shirt into a container and looked around. "I can't believe we're leaving the Vanguard." He said.

"I know," said NAH in a brief tone of seriousness. "It's gonna be an adjustment for sure."

"I just hope this new ship is exactly like the Vanguard."

"Well," said NAH, closing one of the containers. "That's not gonna happen, no ship will be like the Vanguard."

"I guess you're right."

"Come on," said NAH as he grabbed a pair of pants from behind the sofa and put it into a fresh box. "I think we got just enough stuff for another, say, half-a-dozen containers."

---

Jim sat by the warp core and watched its swirling colors, almost as if he was in a trance. He had never expected this to happen, never. And he didn't at first when Vanessa and BASIC told him that they were leaving. He laughed at them, told them that he would get them back for joking with him. But it was all true.

Jim sniffed. BASIC and Vanessa were like his big sister and brother, they were the ones who welcomed him onboard, threw him a birthday party, gave him a place to stay when his quarters was destroyed in battle. They can't leave now, they just can't.

The door opened, Jim barely heard it, and he didn't really care for it.

"Hey, Jim." Said BASIC.

"B!" Said Jim and quickly straightened up. "How's it going? Everything packed?"

Vanessa didn't say anything. She walked over and hugged Jim. BASIC patted him on the back.

"We're going to miss you." He said.

"You're in charge of Engineering now." Said Vanessa.

"Jim, captain of Engineering." Said BASICman through shining eyes. "Got a nice ring to it."

"Don't blow up the ship now!" Said Vanessa.

Jim quickly wiped his face with his sleeve.

"Bridge to Vanessa, BASICman, Nibbles, PG, NAH, Kaitz, and Anna, please go to the starboard docking port." Announced the computer.

"Alright," said BASIC. "It was an honor serving with you, Jim."

"Same here." Said Vanessa.

Jim was speechless, he waved slowly as BASIC and Vanessa exited Engineering. He would've followed them, but there was work to be done, here, on the Vanguard.

---

"Would you look at that…" said CaptH as she watched a ship clear the clouds of the Briar Patch through the viewscreen. Adam stood beside her, slightly uneasy.

The ship was the USS Dublin, a refitted Defiant class ship. Able to go in excess of warp 9.9, she's one of the fastest ships in the fleet. The bridge crew watched the ship glide ever closer. Adam didn't like the ship very much the moment he saw it, it wasn't the Vanguard, it's just some ship.

CaptH glanced at Adam and smiled at him. "It doesn't look too bad." She said insincerely.

Adam sighed. "Open a channel."

"Channel open." Said TC.

"Bridge to Vanessa, BASICman, Nibbles, PG, NAH, Kaitz, and Anna, please go to the starboard docking port."

"Nicely put." Said CaptH. "Mcmac, you're in charge, I'll be at the starboard docking port."

"Yes ma'am."

---

The senior crew gathered around the starboard airlock. No one said anything, all they wanted to do is get this over with and stifle themselves in the misery later. Each of the crewmembers thought about their own stuff, they didn't even make eye contact. Some of them jumped when the Dublin docked with the Vanguard.

"Well, it's time." Said CaptH with a layer of dejection in her voice.

Adam turned on the spot and faced CaptH as the other crewmembers hugged their friends and climbed sadly through the airlock. "It's been an honor serving with you Admiral."

"It's Captain." She said.

"You'll always be Admiral to me."

"And I guess you'll always be Commander to me."

They starred at each other in silence for a minute. "Well…" said CaptH.

Adam lunged forward and grabbed CaptH in a bear hug. She did not expect this. She lightly tapped his back and quickly understood that her presence in Adam's life was more than just being a superior officer. She was a friend, a friend who Adam had lost for 2 months not long ago.

Adam let go of her, slowly smiled at her through shining eyes, and climbed through the airlock and into the Dublin. CaptH stared and waved, it's now that the full impact of it fell on her. This was half of her crew, and it is more than likely that she will never see any of them again.

She felt EWDEE put her hands on her shoulder as the airlock closed.

---

Adam marched onto the bridge. Standing there, beside his Captain's chair, was a man who wore a most peculiar smile.

"Hello sir, I'm Commander Edwin, I'll be your first officer." He said.

"The hell you are." Said Adam. "PG, you're first officer."

"Uh…ok."

"Everyone take your positions, Edwin, you know how to pilot this thing?"

"Yes sir."

"Then do it, you're the helm officer."

"Yes sir."

"That's gonna take some getting used to." Said NAH.

"You bet." Said Adam. "Edwin, undock and get us out of here."

"Yes sir."

"Stop saying that."

---

CaptH got onto the bridge just in time to see the Dublin slowly fly pass the bow of the Vanguard, and quickly disappeared behind the orange and red clouds of the Briar Patch.

Mcmac came up behind her. "Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine." She sighed and sat back in the captain's chair. "I'll be fine, eventually."

---

The first year at Starfleet Academy has done wonders on Ann Hawthorne. Sure, she had no problem understanding history class, but Temporal Mechanics is quite another thing entirely. It was now break time, and the professors have given her a couple of things to read over it.

She sat on her sofa and read the same paragraph again and again, without taking anything in. She yawned and got up to make a cup of coffee. She had stopped using the replicator after it dawned on her that it tasted terrible that way. Just as she reached the kitchen, the doorbell rang.

"Ann" said a voice outside.

Ann got to the door and opened it, revealing Jason, who seemed to have sprinted here from Keyser's house.

"Hey Jason, what's the matter?"

"Keyser's gone."

"What?"

"His place…" Jason panted. "All trashed, broken furniture…"

"Come in, you want some coffee?"

"Not the time!" Said Jason as he came in anyway. "Look, I didn't think Starfleet would care, and you're probably the closest thing I have as a friend around here, what with the war and everyone being in space."

"Why aren't you in space?"

"Got a desk job at Starfleet, have to take care of Keyser."

"Of course."

"So can you help me?"

"What can I do?" Said Ann, taking a sip of coffee. "I barely understand this city."

"Same here, but we need to find him."

Ann thought for a moment. "I guess I can help, but I don't know much about Keyser other than the fact that he tried to take over the ship a year ago."

"It's a long story, but he's changed."

"Alright."

"Are you going to help me or what!" Asked Jason in agitation.

"Calm down," said Ann. "We need to find someone craftier to help us, we have no idea what has happened."

"Who do you suggest?"

"I don't suggest anyone, I've been too busy with my studies to really meet anyone." Said Ann as she pointed at the PADD that she just laid down.

Jason sighed. "Well, thanks anyway I guess, I'll just have to go to Starfleet."

Jason got up and heaved himself towards the door, his head buzzing with ideas on who would care about where Keyser went.

"What about Boltini?" Asked Ann as she tried to read the PADD.

---

Jason and Ann walked down the street to Boltini's house and they couldn't be more different. Jason was sweating bullets; he might have healed his relationship with Keyser, but Boltini? That's a different story, especially after what his alter ego did to him a year earlier. Ann on the other hand, was humming something. She was very happy to leave the house and have an excuse to not read the PADD.

They reached Boltini's house and looked at it in surprise. All of the curtains and blinds were closed; the house had a feeling that it hasn't been lived in for months. They went up the ramp and knocked on the door. No answer.

"Not again…" muttered Jason.

"I don't think he'll mind…" Said Ann.

"Mind what?"

With a swift move Ann ran up to the door and kicked it open. The door stuttered and fell off of his hinges. Jason starred at her in surprise.

"Defensive Training at Starfleet Academy." Said Ann, settling this matter.

They both went in, and for a moment, through the dust that Ann had kicked up, Jason thought he saw another house filled with phaser burns and broken furniture.

The smoke cleared and he found that he was wrong, very wrong. The house was close to spotless, save the front landing where the broken door now sat. Jason and Ann wandered through Boltini's house, and there was one thing they can both agree on: something was definitely wrong. At least half of Boltini's clothes are gone, along with some personal belongings like toothbrushes and even combs.

"This is just weird." Said Jason as Ann fitted the door onto its hinges.

"No kidding," said Ann. "Think they're related?"

"Maybe," said Jason. "We need to tell someone."

"Starfleet?"

"No, I think I need to tell my mom."

---

CaptH paced around her ready room as swirling red clouds moved passed her window. The ship has been here for a few weeks now, and she's pretty much used to them. There were days, when it would get especially monotonous and she would just stare at them. For some reason the auburn hues of the cloud calms her. It does no good now though; her mind is still fixated on the departure of her crew.

Even coffee doesn't taste good.

"Captain," said TC's voice through the comm. system. "We're getting a message from Earth."

"They couldn't have arrived there so soon." CaptH said.

"It's not them, it's Jason."

"Transfer the message here."

"Yes ma'am."

CaptH quickly strode to her desk and sat down. The distressed face of Jason looked back at her.

"Hey mom." He said.

"Is there something wrong Jason?"

"You bet. Keyser's gone missing!"

"Missing?"

"Yeah, his house was all smashed up and everything, can you help us?"

CaptH furrowed her eyebrows at the disturbing news. "I can't, I'm too far away."

Jason deflated like a balloon. "Is there any advice you got for me…mom?"

"Have you called Starfleet?"

"Uhh…"

"Don't, I don't think they'll care about Keyser."

Jason was delighted that her mother agreed with him. "Alright, fine."

"Adam and his new ship is on his way to Earth, contact them when they get there."

"New ship?"

"Long story." CaptH paused for a moment, mentioning Adam and the rest of her crew was painful. "Good luck."

"Wait, there's something else."

"What is it?"

"Boltini's gone too?"

Alertness came over CaptH's face. "Explain."

"His house was completely empty, and some of his stuff is missing, it's as if he went on a trip or something."

"Thanks Jason."

"Do you know something?"

"I'll get back to you. Good luck with Keyser."

"What about Boltini?"

"I'll take care of it."

Jason smiled a small bit. "Good luck with that. Jason out."

CaptH closed her desktop communicator and tapped her combadge. "EWDEE, can you see me in my ready room for a moment."

"I'll be right there."

5 minutes later, a sullen looking EWDEE walked into CaptH's ready room. She took one glance at the Captain and knew something fishy was going on.

"What's up?"

"Boltini's gone missing."

"What!"

"Let me tell you a story EWDEE." CaptH paused, thought for a bit, and then went on. "Did you notice anything strange about Boltini before Keyser's trial a year ago?"

"Actually, yeah, he was very quiet. I thought he was depressed."

"Well, remember that cartridge Garibaldi gave to me? It had more information on it than just the ones about the Kraal."

"How does this link to Boltini?"

"The new information talked about the only person in the galaxy that still have one of Garibaldi's chips imbedded within them."

"Who was it?"

CaptH turned sharply to face her. "It was Kick."

Realization swept over EWDEE's face. "Did you tell Boltini?"

"That was a mistake, but he had to know."

"What do you mean, 'a mistake'?"

"I had a voice in my head that told me he wouldn't just swallow that data, that he would go after her."

Anger erupted within EWDEE. "Then why did you tell him!"

CaptH was taken aback by this, but understood. "He needed to know EWDEE, it was a crime to hold it from him."

EWDEE sighed. "Now what?"

"The data said that Kick worked for Section 31 at that time, it also said that her chip was damaged, so she might have survived when Garibaldi died."

At the mention of section 31 EWDEE opened her eyes wide. She knew what had happened to Boltini before in that God-forsaken organization, and she knew that Captain Hawthorne knew that as well.

"He's going to get killed in there!"

"Not if you can help it."

"What?"

"I'm too busy here, what with all the crew departing, but someone needs to fix my mistake."

EWDEE looked at the Captain with unbelieving eyes. "You want me to find him."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"You did it before, you can do it again."

"That was an accident before." EWDEE half-chuckled. "Coincidentally it was with Kick too."

"Please EWDEE." Pleaded CaptH. Her tone knocked EWDEE off of her feet; she had never heard her plead like this. "Please, I made a mistake, and I can't fix it right now. I need you to do this…for him."

EWDEE hesitated.

"I'll give anything you need, you can take the Nile, the runabout."

"What about section 31? Don't you have contacts with them?"

CaptH wavered for a moment. "They've cut all contacts with me, I think they don't think I'm as trustworthy as I was before."

There was a silence. CaptH starred at EWDEE, hoping that she would accept the mission, correcting the mistake that was gnawing at her.

"Ok." EWDEE said.

---

CaptH followed EWDEE to the shuttlebay. Telling her all she knew about the situation.

"Who's going to fill in for me in sickbay?" Asked EWDEE.

"I'll get some trainee." CaptH said, clearly still thinking about Boltini.

EWDEE climbed aboard the Nile and activated the runabout. She gave one last look at CaptH, who glanced back at her encouragingly, and closed the door.

The Nile flew gracefully out of the Vanguard's shuttlebay and into the haze of the Briar Patch. I must be crazy, thought EWDEE, how am I going to do this? How am I going to get into Section 31? How do I know if Boltini is even_ in_ Section 31?

An idea flashed though EWDEE's mind, she quickly set a rough course and headed out of the nebula.

---

Adam starred out of his ready room as the streaks of stars flew past him. His head swam with memories of him and his days on the Vanguard. It's going to bother me for the rest of my life, he thought. He sighed and ordered a cup of coffee from the replicator. He took one sniff and sat it down. It wasn't like the one at home…

"Captain to the bridge." Came Nibble's voice through the comm. system.

"Alright, I'm coming." Said Adam as he walked away from the steaming cup of hot, black coffee.

"We're approaching Earth." Said Nibbles at the Ops station.

"Drop us out of warp, Edwin, and lets see Earth."

"Aye sir."

The image of a half-lit Earth appeared on the screen. But this time it was different. Seeing Earth has always done something to Adam, maybe causing the hairs on his neck to stand up, or send a chill down his spine; but now…nothing.

"We're being hailed by Starfleet." Said NAH. "Audio only."

"Let's hear it."

"Welcome home Captain Adam." Said the voice. "This is Spacedock controls, the Dublin is cleared to dock."

Adam sighed. "Go ahead Edwin, do your stuff."

"Uh…aye sir."

Adam and the rest of the crew watched as the massive Spacedock loomed into view, its mushroom shaped cap easily dwarfing the Dublin. Its graceful spin calmed Adam slightly, but not to the degree that he wanted. The Dublin slowly approached the large opening gate and easily slid inside. The place hasn't changed much, he thought, no different than in the 2280s.

No, something was different: it was busier. Hundreds of Work Bees swerved across the Dublin's path as they went on their merry way to some assignment. Adam wondered for a split second about what they were doing, but quickly lost interest.

"It's a good thing Spacedock is guiding us in, it sure is busy in here." Edwin said cheerfully.

"Why?" Asked PG.

"Your crew has been in the suburbs for awhile I see." Said Edwin.

Adam starred at him with distaste.

"Anyway," continued Edwin. "Starfleet feels that Earth needs a better shield system, and this is the place where that shield is going to be powered."

"Are they expecting another assault from the Kraal?" Asked Kaitz.

"Something like that, but it never hurts to be prepared."

"Are there going to be shields emitted from the ground as well?" Asked NAH.

"Starfleet thinks that it's much easier to have a planetary shield in space. The signal doesn't have to go through an atmosphere this way."

"We're being hailed again." Said NAH. "It's spacedock."

"Let's hear it."

"Captain Adam," said that same voice. "We're getting a message from Earth, they say it's urgent."

"Who is it?"

"He calls himself, Jason Hawthorne."

Adam's depressed feature changed dramatically. "Transfer it to my ready room."

"Yes sir."

---

The USS Nile drifted through the emptiness of space with its lone occupant. For the past couple of hours EWDEE has been trying to reach the one person that she thought, aside from the Captain herself, could help her find Boltini. She didn't know if this would work, but she did know that sending one continuous signal out into space is a very dangerous thing to do, especially now. To the Kraal she would look like a very bright light bulb. Still, she waited and waited. Hoping that, at anytime, the Triton City would appear.

The thoughts of stupidity came flooding back to her. She should've stayed on the Vanguard longer, she should've made sure she knew what she was going to do, and not just fly into space and start broadcasting her location to anyone who's willing to listen.

The consol in front of her beeped. EWDEE sat up and looked at it intently and terror soon dawned on her. The sensors said that there was a Quantum Slipstream signature closing in on her, and everyone knows that the Kraal used Slipstream drive, how else could they have traveled to the Milky Way from their little satellite galaxy?

EWDEE activated the weapons and shielding just in time to see the aperture open up. A small vessel emerged; it was not a Kraal ship.

"GK to Starfleet ship, come in." A voice said over the comm. system.

EWDEE sighed with relief. "GK, this is EWDEE, I need your help."

5 minutes later the Nile and the Triton City were locked together through the docking ports. GK slowly climbed down from his ship to hers.

"Long time no see." Said GK as they hugged.

"Very long time." Said EWDEE warmly.

"I heard that the Vanguard is in the Briar Patch, why are you so far out here?"

"It's a long story."

"You're going to tell me?"

"Of course, that's why I called you here."

"Let's hear it then."

"Alright." Said EWDEE. She took a deep breath. "Boltini's missing, Captain Hawthorne believes that he went after Kick who is an agent of Section 31, and she wants me to find him."

"I've heard of that." Said GK with interest.

"You have?"

"Yeah, I heard the story that, a year ago when both her and Boltini were being tried, you know, right after we came back from the 21st century?"

"Yeah."

"Well, they were escorting Kick to the courtroom, and she just disappeared, transported away. I knew Section 31 was involved in some way."

"I guess so."

"So why do you need me?"

"I need help getting inside Section 31, I need your help."

GK opened his eyes wide. "Why do you need my help!"

"GK," said EWDEE as she saw the fear in GK's eyes. "You're the only one I know who I know almost nothing about. And you've always done these…mysterious things, I had a feeling that you'll be good with this kind of stuff."

GK hesitated for a moment. "I…I'm sorry EWDEE, I can't do it."

"Why not?"

"Section 31's been hunting me lately, ever since they found out I had that ship."

"What ship?"

GK looked startled, he had obviously released a piece of secret information. "Uh…no ship."

"What ship GK!"

GK sighed. "Alright, remember, about 10 months ago, when I saved all of your lives back at Tialas IV?"

"Yes."

"Well, that ship I used, it wasn't just any little shuttlecraft. It was a Kraal ship."

"Didn't look like one."

"I know." Said GK. "I only found out later. You see, I was going to store it away; I did pay for it after all. Anyway, on the way to a planet, I got attacked by some Orions, and lost warp capability, so I touched down on this little moon, and tried to get parts from that Kraal ship."

"You found the Slipstream Drive, didn't you? That's why you got here using that technology."

"Yep, I also found some files in the computer, never looked for those, but there they were, stuff about Kraal society, leaders, government systems. Can't get into them though, they were encrypted."

"They're very valuable," said EWDEE incredulously. "You could've broken the encryption!"

"I could've…but the Kraal wasn't very important at that time, I just thought they were random aliens, it wasn't worth the time. Anyway, I replaced my warp engines with this Slipstream Drive, and stored that ship on some planet."

"Where does Section 31 come in?"

"They found out about that ship, and now they want it. They can't find it, so they're trying to capture me. There's no way I'm going to march right to them!"

"But it's only a ship…"

"This is section 31 we're talking about! Who knows that they're planning to do with that ship…"

A silence settled between GK and EWDEE, she knew that he wasn't going to cooperate, and with that the last hope for getting Boltini vaporized in her head.

"Well…thanks anyway." Said EWDEE dejectedly.

"I'm sorry." GK said with remorse. "You know I would help if the situation was different."

"I understand." Said EWDEE as she walked towards the navigational controls.

GK knew that he has worn out his welcome. "Well…good luck."

"Thanks…"

GK looked at her one last time and climbed into the Triton City. The ships unlocked and EWDEE saw her last chance for success sail away from her into the depths of space.

---

Captain's Log, Stardate 59021.6: Our sensors have detected a strange signal emanating from a spot less than a half light year from our current position and we are heading there now to investigate. Curiously enough, it is almost the exact location where the Malta was believed to be lost. We are taking the utmost precautions with this one, that's for sure.

---

"We're at the coordinates." Said mcmac.

"Anything besides that signal?" Inquired CaptH.

"Just that signal, it grew stronger, but that's expected."

CaptH starred ahead of her at the viewscreen. It showed her an orange wall of thick clouds. "Ice, full power to impulse engines, take us in."

"Are you sure it's wise Captain?" Said Ice as he punched in the commands.

"We'll see."

The bridge crew watched as they perforated the clouds' limits. Inside it was all a haze, nothing abnormal about it.

"Signal growing stronger." Announced mcmac.

There was no answer. Mcmac looked up at the bridge crew and shuddered: no one was moving, not the captain, not Ice. Mcmac slowly got out of his alcove at the back of the bridge and walked towards the captain.

"Captain?" Said mcmac cautiously. She did not answer.

Mcmac starred her in the face, and she starred back, lifeless. Mcmac took hold of her and shook her, still nothing. He turned and grabbed Ice's shoulder and shook him as well, still nothing. Then he glanced up and looked at the viewscreen. There, among the haze were 3 ships, all Kraal.

Mcmac pushed Ice aside and started hammering on the controls; he felt the ship turn ever slightly, and then felt the unmistakable shock of a tractor beam. His consol beeped. He leapt up from the helm and ran to it: They were being scanned.

Mcmac had no choice; he guessed that whatever was in this cloud, it's not doing its job with him. He ran to the captain's ready room just as 2 figures beamed aboard the bridge.

"Scanning…" said one of them. "All life signs are stable and all of them are under the effects of the field."

"Good." Said the other. "I'll go modify the databanks."

Mcmac monitored their progress in the captain's ready room, being careful to mask his life signs. He watched as one of them contacted the mother ships. He looked out of the large windows and saw the ship turning around. He had no idea what all of this meant.

"Finished." Said the figure that was modifying the databanks. "It's amazing what technology in this galaxy can do."

"Indeed." Said the other. "Mohat to mother ship, two to beam up."

Mcmac watched as the two figures beamed away. He gingerly opened the door to the bridge and glanced around. Everyone was still frozen in that disturbing, wax-figure way. He felt the shaking calm down and instinctly glanced at the viewscreen. They must have turned us around, he thought. He looked back at the large windows in the ready room and saw the ships moving off back into the wall of clouds that they just exited, their tractor beams disengaged.

"Mcmac?" Said CaptH. "What are you doing over there?"

---

"I said I'm fine! Stop scanning me!" Yelled mcmac at a petrified trainee. This was the third time he did that since he was escorted to sickbay.

"Sorry sir, but its Starfleet regulations…"

"I don't care!"

"Calm down mcmac." Said CaptH. "So what happened?"

"I was just trying to tell you how the signals changed, and when I looked up, you were all…frozen."

"Frozen?"

"Yeah, like a weird type of suspended animation."

CaptH thought for a moment. "Go on."

"Then these Kraal ships came, locked a tractor beam on us, and turned us around. They beamed over and changed the databanks to seem like we just passed through a layer of clouds, I think."

"Did they detect you?"

"No, I masked my life signs."

CaptH was silent. The only thing that can be heard is the trainee's medical tricorder, apparently malfunctioning.

"I think the Kraal is hiding something in that cloud." Said mcmac.

"I think you're right. But we can't investigate if we're going to freeze up like that again." CaptH sighed. "It might just be a hunch, but…"

She tapped her combadge. "Hawthorne to Ice."

"Ice here."

"Set a course for Garibaldi's planet, best speed."

"Captain?"

"Just do it."

CaptH saw the confused face on mcmac and smirked. "While I was in his lab last year, I saw a description of a weapon of some sort underneath a big painting that was just like this 'suspended animation field' of the Kraal's."

"Yes!" Said mcmac excitedly. "One of the Kraal said something about the field coming from the Alpha Quadrant!"

CaptH's eyes widened. "That must be it. No wonder Garibaldi survived so long in enemy territory, they must have been partners or something."

Mcmac suddenly looked disappointed. "Wait, we destroyed the base."

"If I were Garibaldi," said CaptH. "I wouldn't build everything on the ground. There must be some other facility elsewhere, maybe underground."

Mcmac looked at her sheepishly. "What do you think is behind that cloud there?"

"Personally, I don't want to know."

---

Adam quickly walked into his ready room and activated his desktop communicator. The panicking face of Jason appeared on it almost immediately.

"Jason, what's the problem?"

"Keyser's gone missing."

"How do you know?"

"We went to his house, and he wasn't there."

"Who are 'we'?"

"Me and Ann."

A memory opened up in Adam, it has been a very long time since he had seen or heard from Ann. The fact that Captain Hawthorne was always around him and also looked exactly like Ann probably caused this.

"What can we do?" Asked Adam.

"Well, you got a starship, can you, you know, scan the planet or something?"

"I can try."

"Thanks Adam. And if you're wondering, we didn't go to Starfleet because-"

"-You think Starfleet won't care about Keyser." Said Adam, finishing Jason's sentence.

"Exactly."

"We'll see what we can do. Adam out."

The worried face of Jason disappeared from the communicator. Adam sighed; he didn't expect a new problem to pop up so soon. He tapped lightly on his combadge.

"All senior staff to the briefing room…if there is one of those on this ship."

---

EWDEE thought and thought, and cannot think of another way to get Boltini. She had lost all hope when GK left, but something in her told her that it was not the end, there _must_ be something she can do to get her best friend back to a place where he's not running the risk of death. She smacked herself on the forehead, knowing that there must be something she can do. She got up and walked to the replicator and stood there in silence. This is no time for coffee, she thought. She was so immersed in thought that she didn't realize that her consol was beeping. It wasn't until the ship started shaking did she turn around and run to the consol and looked over it.

"Oh no…"

She slowly looked up into the void of space. It was no longer smooth and dotted with stars, now it had 3 apertures in it, opened wide.

EWDEE quickly tapped a few buttons, powering up her weapons. This is not the time! She thought to herself. Before she knew it, 3 Kraal scout ships emerged through the apertures and targeted her runabout.

She swerved left and right, dodging the furious fire of the enemy ships. It was no good. The cabin shook like someone was tossing it around.

"Warning," said the computer. "Shields down to 50"

EWDEE quickly reached over the consol and turned off the voice system of the computer. This was bad enough without someone telling her about it.

Torpedoes struck her nacelles, phasers hit the bow, the Nile was clearly loosing. EWDEE coughed through the smoke. This was the end, she thought.

"Sorry Boltini…"

A crash echoed in her ears and a beam from right above her fell, cutting her across the forehead. EWDEE whimpered in pain and fell out of her chair. She can barely open her eyes, but there was nothing to see anyway, just sparks. She slowly closed her eyes, intent on dying in peace…

"GK to EWDEE!" Said a faint voice out of the comm. system. "Come in EWDEE!"

It's just a dream, thought EWDEE; this is just the dream before death, nothing important…

"EWDEE!" Cried the voice.

No point, just let it all go…

The ship shook around her; she can hear a faint sound of air leaking out of the cabin. The shield has been breached…not long now…almost over…

---

"Hey," said a voice. "EWDEE? Wake up!"

EWDEE slowly opened her eyes, afraid to see what's on the other side of her eyelids. Is it heaven or hell? She opened them fully and saw GK's dust-stained face.

It's heaven.

"Wha…?" Uttered EWDEE.

"Welcome back online." Said GK with a smile. "I was worried, but it was only a head wound."

"What happened to the Kraal?" Said EWDEE slowly.

"Took care of them." Said GK coolly.

"You ran away, didn't you?"

"Same thing."

EWDEE managed a weak laugh. "Thanks."

"It's the least I can do." Said GK. "Look, I'm sorry about before, I wasn't thinking."

"What?"

"I'm sorry I didn't help you out with Boltini, I don't know what I was thinking. I mean, what else am I gonna do if I don't help my friends?"

"But Section 31 will kill you."

"Big deal, I can handle them."

EWDEE carefully lifted up her head. "Any ideas?"

"Actually, I had one." Said GK. "They want that Kraal ship, right? I say, we get the ship, and, uh…lure them out."

EWDEE starred at GK and smiled. This was great, she thought through her throbbing headache, there might be a hope at getting Boltini afterall…

---

The Vanguard A traversed the clouds of the Briar Patch slowly as it headed towards Garibaldi's planet. Ice was almost hypnotized by this, the way the clouds smoothly wrapped around the Vanguard's form, almost like a women.

"Ice?"

"Huh?"

"You weren't moving, are you alright?" Asked CaptH.

"Oh, sorry about that Captain."

"Time?"

"4 minutes."

"Alright." Said CaptH as she got up from the chair. She tapped her combadge. "Mcmac, Jim, meet me at the transporter pad in 5 minutes."

"Yes ma'am." They said almost simultaneously.

"We're clearing the clouds." Said Ice. He was slightly disappointed by this.

"There she is." Said CaptH as she starred at the small gray marble hanging in the middle of the massive clearing. "Doesn't look that different."

"My sensors show that there is indeed an underground compartment below the ruins of Garibaldi's Lab." Said Lieutenant Carter.

"Good, Ice, you have the bridge."

---

5 minutes later, a shower of blue light appeared in the dark chamber beneath the surface of Garibaldi's planet.

"Is there a power source here?" Asked mcmac in the gloomy dark, before tripping over something. "If that's not a good way to start an away mission, what is?"

"Hehe…"

The away team wandered through the dark chamber, waving around flashlights and tricorders.

"This place is huge." Said Jim. "It's gonna be hard getting that technology, whatever it is."

"I think we need to scan for something that has the same flux as the field we detected in the nebula." Said CaptH.

"I'll try, but it's gonna be difficult unless that machine is on…"

They walked and walked, every once in awhile touching an old invention. Those who were interested dusted the boxes off to have a look. There were the Crust Disintegrator, the Pie cannon prototype, the Cookie making machine…the list went on and on.

"Hold on…I think I got something." Said mcmac. "This way, through this aisle of boxes."

"Which aisle?"

"_This _aisle."

The away team crept through a narrow gully in the city of boxes and crates. Mcmac stopped, causing everyone else to crash into him.

"What the hell?" Yelled Jim.

"I found it."

---

CaptH strolled triumphantly into Engineering wearing a big smile, something she hasn't done for sometime now.

"Well boys, how is it?"

Mcmac and Jim quickly punched up a schematic of the small machine.

"According to our analysis." Said Jim. "It's is definitely a device which emits a field that seems to interfere with our brain waves in such a way that it causes premature death."

"What!" Said CaptH incredulously.

"I know." Said Mcmac. "It's actually incredibly ingenious. You see the perimeter of the field is key. When a ship first enters the field, it passes through its edge; this triggers the brain to shutdown. But before it does that, it sends out a hormone that keeps you from moving."

"Kinda like when you go to sleep." Piped in Jim.

"Yeah. Anyway, this keeps going for a while until you get out of the field. This is the part that's really amazing. The borders of this field not only shut down the brain, it also restarts it. And with it comes no memory of what just happened. And since the Kraal changed our databases, we _really_ don't know what happened.

"Except you." Said CaptH.

"Yeah, I don't quite get that." Said mcmac. "Maybe I'm just special."

"Very good." Said CaptH. "Can you find a defense for it?"

"Well, we think we understand it." Said Jim. "So reverse engineering it and making a defense for it shouldn't be too hard."

"Good, get started then."

---

"That's it?" Said NAH as he stepped through the threshold into the briefing room.

In front of him was a drab rectangular table with simple slide out chairs on the sides. Adam was already sitting there, his head in his hands. He looked up slowly as his crew filed in one by one through the narrow doorway.

"I don't know what mcmac saw in this kind of ship." Said PG.

"The Defiant class ship might be small, but it packs a lot of punch!" Said Edwin cheerfully.

Adam gave him a distasteful look.

"Alright," said Vanessa. "What's going on with Jason?"

"He said that Keyser's been kidnapped."

"Keyser?" Said Edwin. "Keyser Soze? The criminal?"

Everyone gave him a distasteful look.

"What?"

"Anyway, I've told him that we'll help him out, any ideas?"

"Are we trying to rescue him or something?" Chuckled Edwin.

"Ok Edwin, I want you to-"

"Bridge to Adam."

Adam sighed. "Adam here."

"We're getting a message from Starfleet Command, they want to talk to Vanessa, Anna, and BASICman."

Adam gave them an alarmed look. "Good luck." He said.

"Does he have any idea where Keyser might be?" Asked Kaitz after the 3 had gone.

"No, all he knew was that Keyser's house was vandalized, he doesn't even know who did it."

"What does he want us to do?"

"He wanted us to find him."

"It's not gonna be easy." Said Nibbles. "We got, what, 10 billion people here?"

"I know." Said Adam. "But there must be something we can do."

"Hey…" Said Vanessa as she entered. She looked gaunt, as did Anna and BASIC.

"What's going on?" Asked NAH.

"We're being ordered to go to Starfleet Headquarters for new assignments…"

The crew looked at each other in silence for a while. They know what they wanted to say, and they know that they didn't need to say it.

Vanessa quickly coughed and wiped her eyes. "Anyway, tell Jason that he's got friends at Starfleet Engineering."

"And Starfleet Medical." Said Anna.

"Will do." Said Adam.

They watched as the 3 exited the room. There was a clear silence afterwards that no one wanted to break.

"Nibbles." Said Adam at last. "Scan the planet, see what you can find."

"Yes sir."

"Dismissed."

---

"There she is." Said GK as the Triton City dropped out of warp outside the orbit of Margra 2. This was one of his favorite planets that he had visited in his adventures, and it is clear as to why: there are no people there. All the landmasses are covered in a lush rain forest, making the planet a beautiful turquoise color from orbit.

"It's beautiful." Said EWDEE as she starred on at the marble. "Where's the Kraal ship?"

"Northern continent, I'll get us there."

GK expertly piloted the Triton City through the thick atmosphere of the planet. Beneath them laid the vast sea of green trees and other plants. There was a split moment when all EWDEE wanted to do was jump out and run around in the forest.

The small ship touched down in a small clearing, which seemed to have been made for just this purpose. Moments later, the door opened and EWDEE and GK climbed out with their gear. GK took out his tricorder.

"Is it a long walk?" Said EWDEE.

"You better believe it."

They marched through the soil of Margra 2, it seemed like paradise. Even though it was quite dark in the forest, what with the canopy obscuring the sunlight, life still grew. There were creatures, which looked similar to moss crawling over some of the trees. GK even went up and petted one.

"You like this place?" Asked EWDEE as she looked around excitedly.

"I love it. I wish I could live here."

EWDEE was amused at the sudden change in GK's voice; it echoed a bit of sentimentality that she had never heard before, except when he was referring to the Triton City.

For 5 hours they walked over the rough landscape, never resting, not even sitting down. EWDEE was growing a bit tired.

"How much more do we have to-Ah!" Cried EWDEE as she felt herself fall onto the ground. She looked down and realized that she had accidentally stepped into a crack of some sort.

"We're close now." Said GK, glancing back. "There is a fault line running across this continent. And you just stepped into the very edge of it. Come on."

EWDEE pulled her leg out of the crack and kept walking, night was falling and she can barely see anything. She quickly reached over to her wrist and turned on the flashlight and saw, in the ray of light, GK standing there on the edge of a precipice.

"Are we here?" Asked EWDEE before looking straight ahead. It was like the Grand Canyon, only about 5 times as wide and much more beautiful. She can just make out the outlines of the canyon as the twin moons bathed them in their light for the first time. She was just wondering why she didn't see it from orbit when she looked down and figured out why: it wasn't very deep, only about a hundred meters, and its floor was covered with a green sea of plants of some sort.

Before she had time to really enjoy the view she felt GK's arm on hers, pulling her into the canyon. She quickly glanced at GK and saw a mischievous smile on his face as they started to fall.

EWDEE did not scream, and neither did GK. All she did was hold on and try to comprehend before she dies why GK did this. Within moments she felt the soft cushioning feel of something. She opened her eyes and realized that she had indeed fallen about 100 meters. She also realized that GK was laughing hysterically.

"What the hell was that!" She screamed at him and hit him on the shoulder.

GK reached down and picked up some of the green plants lining the floor of the canyon. "Sylistas." He said.

EWDEE stopped hitting GK and thought about the strangeness of GK's pronouncement. Then it dawned on her. "Sylistas! Of course!"

A couple of months ago Anna had given her a little gift from Risa after the "official" end of the Kraal wars, they were Sylistas, famous for their softness and at the same time toughness.

"Great eh?" Said GK. "Last time I was here I accidentally tripped and fell down that cliff." He said as he pointed at the cliff they just fell down from. "Landed in this stuff, saved my life."

"You could've told me you know."

"Where's the fun in that?"

EWDEE rolled her eyes. She had to admit though, that was fun. "Ok, so where's this ship?"

"I buried it in this field of Sylistas here." Said GK. "Help me look for it, I think it's directly below us.

GK and EWDEE started digging; it was actually not that difficult, the Sylistas were extremely easy to spread apart and move away. It's just very hard to "compress" them.

They kept at it for about 20 minutes. They were at least 8 meters deep when EWDEE struck metal.

"Got it!" Said EWDEE. "Ok, let's get in there."

They both heard it: a puffing sound, like someone jumping on an air mattress. They starred at each other, unsure of what to do.

"I'll go up and take a look." Said GK.

EWDEE looked on as GK made his slow way up the slope of Sylistas, he was almost out of view when a phaser beam hit him.

"Ah!" He cried as he fell backwards down the slope, rolling to a stop at the foot of it. EWDEE quickly drew her phaser but it was too late. Another phaser beam hit her squarely in the chest and she knew no more.

---

"Pressure is increasing!" Said Vanessa as she punched away at a consol. "I'm reading fractures along the outer casing."

"Shut it down!" Yelled BASICman.

The sound of the engine faded. It's only been half a day since Vanessa and BASICman were placed at Starfleet Engineering, and now they were facing a most difficult challenge: the Coaxial warp drive. Admiral Janeway had brought schematics of it from the Delta Quadrant, and for some reason it doesn't seem to want to work here on the other side of the galaxy.

"Damn…" Said Vanessa. "Alright, let it cool down a bit, then we'll try again."

She went to a nearby bench and sat on it. BASIC followed suit.

"I don't like this thing." He said.

"You've been saying that for 4 hours now. It's our job, and we need to get it working, nothing for it."

"We've spent half a day working on the damn thing, it doesn't work!"

"It worked in the Delta Quadrant."

"Then bring it over there and use it. Geez!"

"Calm down."

"Yeah, ok." BASIC paused for a moment. "Any word from Adam?"

"No."

They heard the door open and saw Anna running towards them with a medikit, her lab coat swaying in the air. She stopped in her tracks and looked at them with her brow furrowed.

"Is it reunion time already?" Said BASIC.

"Someone told me over the comm. that there was an accident here." Anna said breathlessly.

Vanessa looked around. "No accident here."

"That's odd." Said Anna. "Someone told me there was."

"Heh…" chuckled BASIC. "They fooled you, it must be a kind of initiation sort of thing."

"You think so?"

"Sure, we had that all the time in the Academy."

"I don't remember that in my academy days." Said Anna as she set her medikit down.

"BASIC went to a special Academy." Said Vanessa mischievously.

"Gee, thanks."

A noise interrupted their conversation. BASIC and Vanessa instinctly looked at the engine, it's sputtering and coming online.

"What the…?"

"Stand back Anna, this is engineering territory." Said Vanessa. "More power to structural integrity."

"Increasing power…" said BASIC. "No effect, the case is buckling!"

"Come on!"

"We have to get out of here!" Said BASIC. "Come on Vanes-"

A massive fireball erupted out of the engine, enveloping Anna, Vanessa, and BASICman instantly. The shockwave burst forth through the door to the chamber, through the hallways, destroying a whole section of the building.

People outside turned their heads as a tremor ripped open the Engineering building, showering them with debris. They ran for cover, not knowing the people who died in that blast.

---

In a small dim-lit chamber a man sat tied. For the past few days he had been punched, kicked, shot at, drenched, and so on. He took all of that in, he knew he deserved it. What's worse, the people who did this knew it as well, and they enjoyed it. In this band of hooligans there was one man who didn't seem to fit the mold. Keyser had made a note of spotting him while he was being kicked around, looking at how he had behaved. There was a theory in his mind right now, and he was hoping that he could test it soon.

The door creaked open and 3 people walked in. The mystery man was among them, looking at Keyser with an air of interest. The other two glanced at him in disgust and talked among themselves. One of them nodded their heads, grabbed a stick and struck Keyser on his face. Keyser fell to the ground coughing up blood, but all this time keeping an eye on the mystery man.

"This is for my brother!" the one who struck him yelled. "You murdered him in cold blood!"

He bent down and grabbed Keyser's hair and pulled him up. "Remember? The Carpathia? The ship you destroyed a couple of years ago?"

He let go of him and struck him in his back. Keyser bit his lips, he wasn't going to groan or yell like a common prisoner.

"We played together as a child, laughed together…but now he is GONE! Because of you!"

He grabbed the stick with both hands and brought it down on Keyser's arm, clearly breaking it. Keyser closed his eyes hard to fend off the pain.

"You didn't like that?"

Keyser remained silent.

The torturer turned away to his colleagues. "Come on, let's get some food. Wilson, you coming?"

"No, I think I'll take a stab at him for a while." Said the mystery man.

"Stab? Good."

The mystery man bent down and looked at Keyser in the bleeding face. His face was very blurry to Keyser, probably because of the multiple concussions. Still, there was something about that man that he knew, something.

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a tricorder and started to scan Keyser, once in a while making a strange face.

"Terry…" whispered Keyser.

The man stopped scanning and looked at Keyser with interest. "Finally guessed it huh?"

"I…knew it."

"Look Keyser, I'm sorry about all of this, but you know, it's business."

"You…could've just asked…"

"I know, but I doubt you would respond. Besides, this is much less inconspicuous. You know, drunken teens, want revenge, the whole shebang."

Keyser managed a weak laugh. "How are…things going at Section 31?"

"Oh, you know, same old same old. Some of our members miss you."

"That's…nice."

"Yes…very interesting." Said Terry as he kept scanning Keyser.

"What's interesting?"

"Just some…stuff…"

"What do you want from me anyway?"

"The boss thinks that you might help us with the Kraal, what with your connection with Garibaldi and his connection with the Kraal and everything."

Keyser glanced at the tricorder. "Anything useful?"

"I got some memories here, should help with reconstructing Garibaldi's base, maybe some of the technology. It's looking good…old friend."

"Hey! Wilson! You want some food?"

"Yeah! Alright!" Shouted Terry.

"Wilson…what a stupid name." Said Keyser.

"I know, ah well, no big deal."

Terry closed his tricorder and looked at Keyser as he got up. "Sorry about this pal."

"No hard feelings…"

---

The news was devastating; CaptH did not want to believe it at first. 3 of her best officers, dead, just like that, in some random accident. She could not believe it. According to the report, only fragments of the bodies were found. CaptH had paced back and forth in her ready room, trying to let it sink in while at the same time preparing herself to tell the crew, what's left of her crew, the bad news.

Right away she knew she wouldn't be the one most affected. As she told them the story, the shock and horror was on every face, but most of all, it was on Jim. He had left the briefing room without saying a word, but CaptH knew how broken up he was inside.

She walked down the halls towards Engineering, thinking whether it's the right time to comfort Jim or not, or whether it's better to just let him be. The doors to Engineering opened, and she saw him, sitting on a slide-out chair, his face in his hands. Ensigns and lieutenants walked past him without batting an eye.

CaptH made her way slowly towards Jim, trying to think up ways to comfort him. She placed her hand on his shoulder and looked him in the face as he slowly raised it out of his hands. There was a horror on his tear-stained face. He quickly wiped it off with his sleeve.

"Captain…yes, uh… the defenses are almost complete."

CaptH looked at him through worried eyes. "I'm sorry Jim."

Jim's face quivered. "It…it doesn't matter captain…it won't interfere with my work."

"It should."

Jim starred at her in disbelief.

"Listen Jim," Said CaptH. "Let it out, go to your quarters and have a good cry, I'm not stopping you."

Jim kept starring at her. "I…they were like my brother and sister!" He cried.

CaptH patted Jim on the back. "I know…don't worry, mcmac can handle it."

"Are…are you sure?"

"Positive, take a break, let it sink in for awhile…that's an order."

Jim looked at her thankfully and walked away, wiping his face at the same time.

"Poor guy…" said mcmac as he came up behind CaptH.

"He's lost family." Said CaptH. "You really can't blame him for acting like this."

"Well, captain, take a look at this."

CaptH took the PADD that mcmac gave to her. "Very good, when can we start?"

"Right now."

---

"Coordinates reached." Said Ice.

"Good." Said CaptH. "On screen."

The familiar orange and red clouds appeared on the viewscreen. Somehow, the swirling motion made it more intimidating than ever before.

"Full power to deflector and weapons."

"Aye aye."

"Take us in."

Like a diver plunging into a pool the Vanguard vanished into the wall of clouds. The minor eddies swirled past the ship gracefully, having hypnotized Ice mere moments ago.

"We're entering the field." Said mcmac.

CaptH looked around, no one was being "frozen". She looked back at mcmac and saw a triumphant look on his face.

"We're well on our way gentlemen." She said.

Before her, dark shapes started to appear on the viewscreen. They got bigger and darker with time, like the shadows of sea monsters swimming up along side.

"Definitely Kraal ships." Said mcmac.

"Tactical, fire at will!"

Phasers erupted unexpectedly out of the phaser emitters and struck the two Kraal ships in the underbelly. Explosions ripped through their ships. They started to tilt to one side, avoiding the intruder completely.

"Full power to impulse engines." Ordered CaptH. "Get us through to the other side!"

The Vanguard flew past the two Kraal ships and headed off into the distance, trailing gasses behind as it cut through the nebula.

"The Kraal ships are turning around, their targeting our engines!"

"Aft shields!"

The ship shook as weapons fire struck it in the backside.

"Aft torpedoes, fire!"

"Direct hits, minor damage."

"We've exited the field captain."

"Dump power from the deflectors to the weapons! Fire at will!"

Phaser streaks and torpedoes flew out of the Vanguard and hit the Kraal ships, their frontal shielding alight with energy.

"Captain!"

CaptH looked up and saw through the viewscreen a nightmare: they had exited the cloud. There before her lay a sprawling metropolis, ships flying back and forth across her view of a large black building floating in the middle of a nebulous cocoon. It was the Kraal base.

"Full scans mcmac!" Yelled CaptH. "Mr. Ice, come about, get us out of he-"

The ship shock as barrage upon barrage of weapons fire hit it. Sparks rained down from the ceiling.

"Fire at will!" Said CaptH.

The Vanguard was struck again, and again. Pieces of hull flaked off the superstructure.

"They're locking onto us with a tractor beam!" Said mcmac through the smoky bridge.

The ship swayed like it was being tethered.

"Shake us free!"

"It's no use, they got 7 tractor beams on us!"

CaptH saw as her ship was directed away from the safety of the wall of clouds and instead was pointed towards the massive black buildings. There was movement on the building and soon she realized that a port was opening, they were being pulled in.

The tractor beams on the ships went out and a new tractor beam from the superstructure bathed the crew in an eerie yellow light as they are pulled into the dark cavern.

---

CaptH sighed heavily and turned around to face mcmac. They were in the darkness of the chamber, as well as the ship. The lights had gone out only moments before.

"Sensors?" Said CaptH in frustration.

"Not working."

"Damn…"

"Ah, you must be Captain Hawthorne." Said a voice from behind her.

CaptH slowly turned around and starred into the green eyes of a Kraal. He looked back at her with an innocent smile on his face. He was wearing a very elaborate uniform, there were many metal objects attached wily-nily across his shoulder and arm.

"Who are you?" Asked CaptH.

"I am General Barose of the Kraal." He said. "And it's a privilege to finally meet you, captain."

"Is it?"

"Oh yes, I'm heard a great deal about the adventures of the Vanguard."

"What are you going to do with us?"

"Slaves…" he said after awhile. "Yes, that would be the best."

"We're not going to let you do that."

Barose looked at her and smiled even more. "Very brave words Captain. Let me tell you something else, how about it?"

"Fine."

"This fleet, this base, is designed for one thing."

"And what is that?"

"The eventual conquering of Earth."

"You tried before and you failed."

"A simple mistake on our part, it won't happen again."

CaptH sighed. "Why are you doing this?"

The smile faded from Barose's face. "We're not sure of that."

"What!"

"It is quite foolish, yes. However," he said as he gazed intently at her. "This is something that is in all of us Captain, the need to conquer Earth, we do not know the real reason, but we know that we must do it."

CaptH looked him incredulously. "How can you invade a planet based on intuition!"

"We just do Captain. We have never done other wise and so far it has done us proud."

"Not this time."

"Again, brave words. But they are just words, never forget that Captain. It was good talking to you, I hope to see you in the future after our victory at Earth."

His face vanished from the viewscreen, leaving an open-mouthed CaptH who had a revolted look on her face. She slowly turned back to mcmac.

"We have to get out of here."

Mcmac nodded slowly. He pushed some random buttons on his consol, hoping that something would happen.

Something did happen.

Mcmac grabbed his head and started to scream. He thrashed around behind his consol, bruising his legs and arms. CaptH quickly ran up to him and grabbed him by his shoulders.

"Mcmac!" She yelled. "Hawthorne to sickbay, medical emergency!"

---

"Hurry!" Yelled CaptH as she, along with a convulsing mcmac and several crewmembers entered sickbay at a sprint.

Ensign Carlos, who was now in charge of sickbay quickly helped put mcmac onto a biobed and started to tap at the consol beside him.

"What's with him?"

"Patience captain." He said. "I'm reading a powerful energy source within his skull…it's too deep to operate within this short of time. I'll have to beam it out of there."

"Is that safe?" Asked CaptH.

Carlos gave her a wry look and quickly punched up the transporter protocols of sickbay.

"Energizing…now!"

Mcmac stopped convulsing almost instantly. Beside him, a small bit of blue appeared and soon transformed into a small square piece of metal. Carlos quickly took out his tricorder and scanned mcmac while several of the other crewmembers took a cautious look at the small device.

"He's OK captain." Said Carlos.

CaptH sighed with relief. "Good work ensign."

---

"Well, what is it?" Asked CaptH as she hovered over a recovered mcmac.

Blue light from the microscope lit up his face as he starred into it. It was baffling. It looked like a computer chip of some kind, its circuits undulating about the surface as if tiny surgeons made them.

"Never seen anything like it." Said mcmac as he looked back up at the captain. "It looks like a computer ship, but it's not Federation."

CaptH bent down and took a look at the chip.

"What happened anyway?" Asked mcmac. "When I was unconscious I mean."

"Well, Ensign Carlos beamed the chip out of your head, and right then and there it stopped being active…it's as if it wanted to get out of your head."

"I wonder where it came from…"

"Me too…"

CaptH straightened up and looked worryingly at mcmac. "You're right, it's not Federation, but it's not Kraal either."

"Then who put it there?"

"No idea…"

Mcmac thought about it for a moment. "I think we need to call Jim."

"Agreed."

---

Dark shapes hovered in front of EWDEE as she struggled to wake up. She didn't know how long she was out, and she doesn't particularly care. She took a slight breath and took in a strange dusty smell. She tried to open her eyes, but could only see darkness. Fear gripped her, she tried to move but felt her limbs tied down. She concentrated on feeling with her skin, and realized that she did not have anything covering her eyes. She just couldn't see anything.

A creaking sound startled her, and a sharp line of light appeared to the right of her. She squinted at it and saw a silhouette walk in. Whoever he was, he was a tall man, very business like. The man gently flipped a switch and a dim light sprang to life above EWDEE.

"EWDEE, I presume?" He said. He sat down on a small stool standing mere feet from her.

"What do you want?"

"I want your cooperation."

A thought quickly sprang into EWDEE's mind. "Where's GK!"

"I assure you he is safe." The man said. "He grew violent after he regained consciousness. He's in the brig."

EWDEE sighed.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Garrison. I belong to Section 31."

EWDEE drew a sharp breath at the mentioning of this. "Do you know anything about Boltini?"

Garrison smiled. "You are bright, I'll give you that."

He slowly got up and started to pace. "In fact, that's exactly what I want to talk about."

"What have you done to him?"

"I'll get to that." He said. "We will have to start at he beginning." He took a deep breath. "It all started a year ago, when your ship, the Vanguard, came back from the 21st century."

EWDEE tried to listen, but the light above her was giving her a headache.

"One of our agents, Kick, was on your ship, we thought we had lost her, but we were mistaken."

"GK said someone transported Kick away right before she entered the courtroom." Said EWDEE.

"Yes, that was us, we needed her. I believe you know her connections with Garibaldi?"

"Yes."

"It's actually quite amusing. Garibaldi always thought that he could place an agent in Section 31 to make sure he doesn't get caught, but we were always onto him. There was only one reason why we did not go after him…well, two really."

"What were they?"

"One, he had a lot of inventions that we could've used. But more importantly, his agents were special; the chips in their heads helped us make sure they were loyal to _us_. The modifications to those things were very easy to make."

He glanced back at EWDEE to make sure she was listening. "Anyway, through Kick we had learnt of the connection between Garibaldi and the Kraal, and we knew right away that they were a very dangerous enemy. So, we sent our little puppet, Kick, over to their homeworld."

"But…but they live outside this galaxy." Said EWDEE.

"Indeed. If it wasn't for that ship that crashed on Garibaldi's planet, we would've never had the chance."

"What?"

"Garibaldi first learnt of the existence of the Kraal when one of their scout ships crash landed near his facility, surely you saw the massive crater when you decloaked his planet."

"Not really…"

"Well, what Garibaldi did not know was that we got there first, we got the Slipstream technology. Using that we developed our own ship with that drive. And a year ago, we sent Kick off to Kraal Prime to see what we can exploit to make sure the Federation stays safe."

"But something went wrong…it seemed that we did not make enough modifications to that chip. When Garibaldi died, we lost all contact with her. She must have noticed it too, no matter how much we tried we could not reach her."

"Maybe she's dead." Offered EWDEE.

"Possible, but unlikely. She is a capable agent."

"What does this have to do with Boltini?"

"I'm getting to that." Said Garrison. "You care a lot about him, don't you?"

"Just get on with the damn story."

"Fine. Two months ago, Boltini showed up on our doorstep, by chance it seemed. He had had engine trouble and touched down near this base. Of course, we knew that he had no memory of his days at Section 31, but we also know his attachment to Kick. So we brought him in and told him what I just told you."

"What did he do?"

"We made him a deal. We would install a specially made Section 31 chip in his brain to keep tabs on him, while at the same time we would give him a ship and the coordinates of Kraal Prime. We also agreed to remove the chip after his mission was done."

"Hard to believe he accepted another chip in his head."

"I thought that too, but he cared about Kick very much."

A small tinge of jealously erupted within EWDEE, but she quickly suppressed it. "What did he have to do with Kick?"

"Retrieve her and bring her back, along with any important information regarding the Kraal. Pretty straightforward, if you ask me."

Garrison sighed and looked at EWDEE.

"Something went wrong, didn't it?"

"I'm afraid so. We lost contact with Boltini several days ago."

"I'm not getting any chips in _my_ head."

"What?"

"I know what you're going to ask of me. I'll do it, but under certain conditions."

"You know why you're here?"

"Of course, you want me to track both Boltini and Kick down and bring them back."

A slight smile stretched over Garrison's face. "I knew you were bright. What are these conditions?"

"I will not have a chip in me or GK, and I want to see him alive and well, right now."

Garrison looked at EWDEE meaningfully and walked out of the room, silently. EWDEE did not know what that meant exactly, but soon figured it out when she heard yelling noises getting louder and louder.

"Where the hell are you taking me now!" A voice yelled.

The kicking and struggling form of GK emerged from behind the doorway. He took one look at the mild smirk on EWDEE's undamaged face and stopped.

"EWDEE! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She said. "Now, get this stuff off of me and let me talk to GK alone."

---

"So what do you say?" Asked EWDEE to an open-mouthed GK.

"Uh…wow, that's…that's a lot of information."

"I know, I think I got some of it wrong but the just is there. We have to go to Kraal Prime and get Boltini and Kick back."

"What if they don't want to come back?"

EWDEE looked at GK incredulously. "Why wouldn't they come back? They're in enemy territory!"

"I guess…"

"They've agreed to leave us alone and let us do it, we'll take the Triton City. Do you think she can handle this long journey?"

GK quickly looked up. "Are you kidding? She can easily go to the other side of the galaxy and back."

"So is that a yes?"

GK's mind raced. What does he have to loose?

"Yes…yes it is a…yes. Yeah."

---

GK and EWDEE walked along the dark hallways of the Section 31 compound. They had found out that this base was actually on Margra 2, so it was kind of strange that they never found the Kraal shuttlecraft. Still, who knows what Section 31 was planning, as GK had said.

They went through the last door and walked into the gleaming shuttlebay. The walls were lined with very advanced looking crafts and the shuttlebay doors opened to reveal a massive clearing stretching out towards the blue sky. The Triton City sat there, looking cleaner than usual.

"It won't blow up if I start it, would it?" Said GK.

Garrison stood there and chuckled. "What do you think?"

"I think you should start it."

"Do not worry, we need you more than you need us, I promise."

"I'm holding you to that." Said GK as he closed the doors.

The engines of the Triton City revved up and the small craft gently lifted off from the ground. It turned 180 degrees and flew off in a blur into the blue skies of Margra 2.

---

Captain's Log, supplemental: We have been ordered to the Oncara sector to settle a border dispute. However, we were able to convince Starfleet to let us stay in orbit for a couple more hours while we complete our search for Keyser.

---

Adam paced the bridge of the Dublin. The recent events of the deaths of their crewmates hit the crew hard. They all knew that in Starfleet there are dangers all over the place, but it has never hit home like this.

"So how many hours did we get out of Starfleet?" Said NAH.

"Not many." Said Adam. "I'm surprised they haven't hailed us about it yet.

The consol behind him beeped. Adam turned around and craned his neck to look at Nibbles. He then realized that the Ops station on this ship is actually in front of him.

"What's going on?"

"I think I found him."

"Keyser?"

"Yeah."

"How?"

"Remember a year ago, when we fought Garibaldi?"

"How can we forget?" Said PG.

"Well," said Nibbles. "At that time Boltini had a link with those people with the chips in their heads, and he didn't have a chip."

"So you thought that Keyser might still have some residual effects?"

"Pretty much." Said Nibbles. She quickly tapped a few buttons and a map appeared on her screen. "I searched for the frequency of Keyser's old chip, and I found a match, it's very faint."

"Where is it?"

"It's in the middle of the Nevada deserts."

"Hail Jason and Ann, get a more detailed scan of that place."

"Yes sir."

"I'm getting a message, it's Jason." Said NAH.

"On screen."

Jason appeared on the screen. Ann's house filled the background. "Well?"

"Got him, Nevada desert. We'll send you the exact coordinates now." Said Adam as he gestured at NAH.

"Thanks Adam…and one more thing."

"What is it?"

"Well, we're not exactly…uh…important Starfleet personnel. So it's gonna take some time to get there…"

"Transporters?" Said Kaitz.

"No." Said Adam. "Starfleet would notice."

"Ok…" said PG. "They can take my runabout, the Fraser."

"Good. I'll inform the guards," said Adam. "Good luck, we'll be monitoring from here."

"Thanks Adam."

"No problem."

---

Jim sat at the foot of his bed, starring at the ceiling. He tried to recount the memories he had shared with Vanessa and BASICman, but the more he does that the more it hurts. He took a swig of a green liquid and coughed. He didn't normally drink, in fact, the last time he did that he collapsed in a bar in Texas. He took another drink and coughed again. His chest hurt. His face is smudgy from the tears, and he has finally run out of them. For 18 hours he sat there, even through the turmoil as the Vanguard let loose its arsenal on the Kraal ships. He couldn't care less about anything right now. He hasn't even glanced out the window yet. He just sat there, starring at the ceiling, or at the wall, or at the floor.

The door chimed. Jim drunkenly swiveled his head towards it.

"Enter!" He yelled brutishly.

CaptH appeared in the doorway; she walked in slowly and was immediately hit by the smell of alcohol. She quickly shook it off and looked at Jim. He was in tatters; there were rips all over his uniform where he had clawed at himself.

"Jim?"

"What do you want!" He slurred.

"Jim, do you know what's happening?"

"Should I care?"

"Very much so."

Jim looked at CaptH with one of his eyes closed. I don't care, he thought.

"Why should I?"

"Look out your window."

Jim starred stupidly at CaptH and slowly got up and walked up to the window. It took him a while to notice that the regular darkness of space, or the regular orange of the Briar Patch, was replaced by that of a black wall riddled with fissures and panel lines. Jim wavered on the spot and seemed to wake up. He quickly turned around and faced CaptH.

"What…what happened?"

"Are you going to help us?"

Jim dropped the bottle with a clatter. "Tell me…tell me what I have to do."

---

The crew gathered around the briefing room waiting for Jim to enter. They talked amongst themselves about everything that was going on, especially about how normal life is even though they're prisoners.

The door swished open and a refreshed Jim walked through. He put his hand through his hair and looked on as the crew starred at him.

"Look guys…sorry about how I've been acting…"

"It's alright Jim." Said CaptH. "We understand. Now, what have you found?"

Jim tapped a few LCARS on the wall behind him. "I've analyzed the chip. It seems that it was made with the intention of opposing the Kraal. Anything connected to it, be it technological, or…" He looked at mcmac, "…biological."

"Any ideas on who made it?"

"Uh…not yet."

"That makes sense," said Ice. "Mcmac here got that chip in his head, and that's why he was not affected by that death field thing."

"But that was Garibaldi's invention." Said TC.

"Not quite." Said Jim. "According to detailed scans, the field had a slight trace of Kraal technology in it, they must have messed around with it. This chip seem to pick that up and makes the whole device useless."

CaptH thought for a moment. "Imagine if we connected that with the Vanguard…would it oppose the energy field we're in now?"

"Theoretically? Yeah."

"Ok, so we know that, it seems to actively oppose Kraal technology, and it can affect pretty much anything that's connected to it. It also actively wanted to…uh…get out of mcmac's head, and went offline as soon as it was taken out."

"It seems that someone is trying to help us out." Said TC.

"But who?" Wondered Ice.

"And when did mcmac get the chip?"

"I think I might know." Said mcmac. "Remember when I fainted while playing cards a couple of days ago?"

"The black out." Said Jim.

"You think someone might have inserted the chip in you then?"

"It's possible, all the weird stuff started happening then."

"That makes sense, what with all the confusion at that time." Said TC.

"Well," said CaptH. "I think we have to worry about that later. The most important thing is that we have a weapon to get out of here. Jim, work with mcmac on connecting this chip to the ship."

"That rhymes."

"Not now TC."

---

"Activate the chip…now!" Said CaptH as she gestured to mcmac.

"Got it," said mcmac. "It's working, systems are coming back online."

Lights flared up across the Vanguard, the familiar humming of the engine grew louder.

"Good."

"Shall I take us out of here Captain?" Said Ice eagerly.

"Not yet…mcmac, if that chip fights against Kraal systems…is there anyway we can use that to tap into their database?"

Mcmac raised an eyebrow in response to this. "Uhh…maybe."

"Try it."

"Yes ma'am." Said mcmac as he hammered away at the consol.

---

There are many things that are found within the Briar Patch, some, like the Kraal base, is quite visible. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the invisible is also found here, and one thing that is invisible, at least to Kraal sensors, is drifting across the clouds outside of the cavity holding the mighty Kraal fortress. Its lone pilot, all dressed in black, hummed serenely as clouds drifted past his small vessel.

He pressed a few buttons and quickly heard the release of gas into the clouds. A slight smirk widened across his face. His simple mission was complete, now it was time to go home and watch the fireworks.

---

General Barose stood inside the tip of one of the longest protrusions on the Kraal complex as he starred out into the clouds. This Patch of space always fascinated him, the continuing formation and destruction of patterns in the clouds reminded him of the clouds in his own world, the times when he would stare at them nonstop. He coughed. He knew in his heart that his world's days are numbered and there's nothing he can do about it. But he can still save his people.

"Sir."

"Yes?" Said Barose coolly.

"We're detecting a strange chemical in the clouds." Said the science officer.

"What do you mean, strange?"

"According to our analysis, this new gas could react with the rest of the cloud…explosively."

"You're saying that this cloud can explode!"

"I'm afraid so sir, any weapons fire could set it off."

Barose fumed. "But you informed me that it was inert!"

"I don't understand sir, it was when we got here."

Barose narrowed his eyes in anger and starred at the science officer, who quivered with fear.

"We have no choice." Said Barose. "Inform the fleet, we have to leave early or we'll all be dead."

"Yes sir."

---

"I can't believe this!" Said mcmac as Scrolling numbers and strange symbols went past his eyes. "It's working!"

"Is there anything in that base we can use in our advantage?" Said CaptH with excitement.

"Let me see…"

The consol in front of mcmac beeped.

"Oh boy…" said mcmac as he glanced gravely at the panel beside the scrolling data.

"What?"

"According to this, there are thousands of Kraal ships out there, and they're all heading in one direction."

CaptH's eyes widened. "Earth."

Mcmac nodded silently.

"Tactical, full power to weapons, blow a hole in this building!"

"Yes ma'am." Said the new tactical officer.

Torpedoes flew out of the Vanguard and struck the opposite wall. Shrapnel soared way from the massive explosion and bounced off of the walls.

"I'm reading a rupture of approximately 120 meters in diameter."

"Good enough, mcmac, keep downloading the database. Ice, get us out of here, full impulse."

"Aye aye."

"Red Alert, battle stations!"

The Vanguard moved ever slowly as its weapons awoke from the Kraal-induced nap. The massive vessel crawled forward, making for the hole in the side of the structure. The bridge crew watched on as the ship got closer and closer to the small hole. They held on, they closed their eyes. The ship cleared it no problem.

"I've lost connection with the database." Said mcmac.

"That's alright." Said CaptH. "Aft viewer, let's see what the Kraal has to offer!"

The bright orange clouds peppered with Kraal ships vanished to reveal a massive fleet heading in their direction. An immense battleship swept over the Vanguard, not firing a single shot.

"What's going on? Why aren't they firing at us?"

"Believe it or not." Said Lieutenant Trent. "Their weapons aren't even powered."

CaptH looked at the oncoming fleet; they still flew over them with no sign that they've been noticed.

"Full sensor scans." Said CaptH. "I want to know what's going on."

"Aye aye." Said mcmac.

"Well? Anything?"

"Yeah," said mcmac in astonishment. "Those clouds, they're no longer stable."

"Explain."

"According to this data, one shot at those clouds and this whole place is going to go up like a bomb."

"No wonder they're not firing at us." Said TC.

CaptH starred into mcmac's face, a sense of determination and doubt filled it. They both knew what they have to do, and they both know that they could all die because of it.

"Mr. Ice, turn us around and plot a course opposite that of the Kraal's"

"Yes ma'am."

"Captain," said mcmac. "You know what you're doing…right?"

"I always do mcmac." She said. "How long until we're out of weapon's range of the clouds?"

"10 seconds." Said Trent.

"Alright," Said CaptH. "Target the cloud, full phasers."

"Target locked."

"…Fire!"

A burst of phaser fire erupted from the aft of the Vanguard. It streaked through space like a knife and plunged itself into the orange clouds. The bridge crew watched on, nothing was happening. Sweat rolled down CaptH's face. When the Kraal notices that the cloud was not reacting, they would all turn their weapons on this ship, she thought.

"I'm reading a large buildup of energy within the cloud." Said mcmac. "It's working."

The orange cloud started to turn in color to yellow, then to white. The blast spewed forth from the walls of the cavity. Kraal ships pulled up over the expanding gas but were soon consumed.

"Ice! Get us out of here!" Ordered CaptH.

"Yes ma'am!"

The impulse engines flared up and propelled the Vanguard in the opposite direction as the expanding cloud. The crew watched as the cloud enveloped the superstructures, how the towers were tossed around like shuttlecrafts, how they snapped in half as the shockwave rolled over them, how the stations broke apart and each drifted into different directions before being devoured by the clouds. The walls around the cavity started to glow and they, too, started rushing inward.

---

"Sir!"

"What is it?"

"I'm reading a powerful shockwave approaching from the aft! Someone's ignited the nebula!"

"Imbeciles!" Said Barose. "Bring the Slipstream online."

"But sir, we can't use it in the nebula!"

"We shall see about that."

---

The roiling clouds enclosed around the Vanguard as it sped for the opposite wall of the tiny bubble within the Briar Patch.

"Increase speed!" Said CaptH as the ship groaned around her.

"I can't! Impulse at maximum!" Said Ice.

"Try warp drive again!"

"No use, the massive energy wave is interfering with it!"

A sweat-stained CaptH starred at the viewscreen as the ball of flames consumed the last of the Kraal stations. It was like starring into the gates of Hell.

"Approaching opposite wall!"

"On screen."

A formless wall now stood in front of them. Gradually, wisps and patterns started to emerge as they got closer and closer. Then they saw it. A glimmer of yellow as it crept into their field of vision.

"The reaction is almost complete." Said mcmac.

"We have to make it through those clouds before this entire thing collapses on us!" Said TC as his consol sparked in front of him.

The dim circle of normal clouds shrank as the Vanguard approached. The crew hung on, as they got closer and closer. All of a sudden, the ship plunged through the wall. They can see the clouds spilling over them are beginning to react, they could feel the shockwave gaining on them.

Then they were out. They starred ahead at what seemed like another cocoon of empty space. Behind them the wall glowed and rushed outwards like a balloon, sweeping up the Vanguard in one swoop and enclosing them in the fiery depth of the shockwave.

---

CaptH coughed. She had known that they were probably far enough from the center of the explosion to take it, and it appeared that she was right.

"Report!" She yelled into the smoky bridge.

Mcmac tapped at his flickering consol. "Shields are down, so is communications, we got a minor hull fracture on deck 11, at the very aft parts of the ship, it's being sealed up as we speak."

"Casualties?"

"3 injured, none dead."

Relief swept over CaptH. "That's…that's not too bad. Are you detecting any Kraal ships?"

"None at this distance."

"Let me see what's left of the Kraal base."

The picture that appeared on screen mystified the crew: the orange clouds are gone, replaced by a blank slate of empty space.

"My God…" Said Ice.

"That explosion destroyed this whole area." Said TC in awe.

"Mr. Ice," said CaptH. "Best speed in that direction." She said as she pointed ahead.

Ice plotted a course as CaptH leaned over him. She is hoping for silence, no abnormal beeps from the sensors, nothing. There is only one way the Kraal ships could've survived, and she would know that they figured it out if mcmac's consol started beeping.

"Captain, I'm getting something."

CaptH sighed. "What is it?"

"Slipstream signatures…500 of them."

"That's all?"

"No…800…1200…1500…"

Mcmac's voice trailed off.

"Well?"

"2500 signatures ma'am" Said mcmac in resignation.

"We should warn Starfleet." Said TC.

"Communications are down TC." Said CaptH. Something inside of her broke and she knew it. The past few weeks have been hell, her crew leaving, her crew dying…but this one was too much. She attempted to hide it. "But you're right. Get Jim to work on the communications array. Mcmac, look through that Kraal database, see what we can get out of it."

"Aye aye."

CaptH shared a quick look with her bridge crew and stormed off to her ready room.

---

"Come in." Said CaptH as her door chimed. It didn't take too long for her acceptance to turn into anger. She had reached the point that she just had to blame someone, anyone. And the Kraal was the perfect scapegoat. They were responsible for everything, all the hardship they went through. She didn't care otherwise.

Mcmac walked into the ready room slowly. "I've…I've looked over the Kraal database."

CaptH got up from her desk. "What's wrong now?"

"Well, according to this, the Kraal has a second fleet, somewhere in the Briar Patch. Apparently, they're going to be used as the backup."

Anger crept unmistakably into CaptH's eyes. "Do we know the location?"

"Captain, even if we do, which we don't…what could we do?"

"Don't talk like that mcmac," she said. "Remember, we just took out an entire Kraal base."

"We still don't know how we did it." Said mcmac.

CaptH looked at him and a subtle malicious smile appeared on her face.

"I'm sorry I'm so negative captain, but from what I see, the only thing we can do is to get that damn communications array working and tell Starfleet about it."

"Not that…" said CaptH. "Starfleet took care of a fleet the first time, they can handle them. What we need to do is take care of the second fleet."

"How are we going to do that?"

"We'll need a weapon."

Realization surfaced on mcmac's face. "Are you sure Captain?"

"It's the only place in the quadrant that I'll trust to find a powerful weapon."

"I'll tell Ice right away."

"Make sure you do."

---

The Triton City flew smoothly through the blue tunnels of the slipstream, its two occupants anxious. It has been several weeks now since they left Margra 2 in search of Boltini, and they haven't found him just yet. Several times there were promising signals, but they all ended up being Kraal wreckage or, worse, Kraal scout ships.

As the Triton City was pretty much automated, or at least it's automated when GK wants it to be, which is all the time these days, EWDEE had little to do. She would spend her days lying on GK's bunk, thinking about what was happening back home. She soon realized just how far they had traveled when, one day; GK dropped out of Slipstream and told her to look outside. She saw the gleaming disk of the Milky Way hovering above her, silent.

They kept going. The days grew longer and longer, nothing was to be said. They're both trying to concentrate on the goal of getting Boltini and eventually, Kick. That leaves little room for common conversations.

Exactly one month past, and they still haven't found Boltini. They were beginning to worry again. According to the sensors, they should be getting pretty close to central Kraal space by now.

"Good morning." Said GK as he scratched his head and wobbled over to the helm.

EWDEE sat there, apparently immersed in sensor readings. "Yeah, 'morning."

"Is something happening?"

"I'm not sure…"

"Drop us out of Slipstream, let's take a look."

They heard the decreasing sounds of the engine as black space appeared before them, but there was something else too.

---

"Damn it!" Screamed Boltini. "Not now! Not again!"

He coughed and slowly crawled out of the conduit leading to the engine core, which is fried. He got up slowly, his knees cracking along the way, and dusted himself off.

"I hate this ship…" he muttered.

For 3 months now he traveled onboard this slipstream test ship with its cramped bed that would leave his arms and feet dangling above a cold and dingy floor, almost like a prison. Almost every morning he had to fix something otherwise the ship will explode, or the hull would breach, or whatever else Fate has decided to throw at him. In fact, it almost killed him a couple of days ago, but all it did was to deactivate the chip in his head.

He has had enough. He wanted to find Kick; in fact, he found her a couple of days ago. He was fixing some conduits as usual, and the consol beeped. There was Kick's face, smiling, as she saw Boltini stare back at her. They talked for hours, until Kick had to go somewhere. Boltini had found out where she was, and found out that she was living, disguised, on Kraal Prime, and that she would meet him when he get there.

If he gets there at all that is.

Boltini sat on his bed and pulled on some more socks. It seems the environmental systems must be down.

His consol beeped.

He got up lazily, expecting another malfunction, but there was something else. He slowly raised his head and starred forward into space. His mouth hanged open as the Triton City glimmered into view.

---

"It's good to see you Nick!" Said EWDEE as she locked him in a tight hug after nearly jumping through the hatchway.

"How have you been Boltini?" Said GK as he clasped Boltini on the back.

"I've been…miserable."

"What?"

"You wouldn't believe what a piece of crap this ship is."

GK's smile cracked wider as he glanced around at the piece of junk. "No kidding."

EWDEE busily led Boltini to his bed and they both sat down on it. "So…what happened?"

Boltini studied her face. "I'm guessing you got into Section 31 and one of them told you everything already?"

"Heh…" chuckled GK. "Hasn't lost a bit, has he?"

"You're right, Garrison told me everything." Said EWDEE. "But…but something else must have happened. Why did you do all of this?"

"I had to get rid of that chip in Kick. You understand?"

"Yeah…"

Boltini looked at EWDEE reproachfully. "You can't understand Kith, you haven't had the…pleasure of having one of Garibaldi's chip stuck in you."

"What do you mean?" Said EWDEE nervously.

"I had to do this…Keyser's…well, Keyser's gotten a little brittle if you ask me. I'm the only one who's willing to do this, to get rid of Garibaldi's influences forever."

"That I understand."

"Do you?"

"Yes. I risked my life looking for you, you know that?" Said EWDEE, raising her voice. "I did it…_twice_!"

"I'm…I'm sorry Kith…" Said Boltini, holding EWDEE's hand in his. "I…"

"It's alright." Said EWDEE. "Everything's getting a little complicated these days."

"It's just this piece of junk…"

EWDEE smiled. "You make a good point…"

"Well then," said GK. "Shall we go home now?"

"We can't." Said Boltini. "We still have to get Kick."

EWDEE glanced at Boltini briefly, and then turned to GK. "Yeah. Remember, the deal was to get both of them. Besides, we'll be giving the Federation some useful information about the Kraal."

GK sighed. "So where do we go now?"

"Kraal Prime." Said Boltini. "Come on."

Boltini, GK, and EWDEE climbed through the hatchway into the Triton City. The two ships separated, and right before the Triton City jumped to Slipstream it had the pleasure of destroying the ship that became Boltini's personal hell for 3 months.

---

"You know, I've never actually flew a runabout before." Said Ann.

"Really?" Said Jason incredulously. "You're surprisingly good at it."

The USS Fraser crested the Sierra Nevadas and the two occupants were treated with an inspirational view of the massive desert now stretching below them.

Jason and Ann had had some problems getting PG's Runabout. They went up to the guard and asked for it. He promptly refused, saying that they needed to show ID and some proof that they can fly a runabout. Jason tried to explain the situation, but it did not work. The guard then saw Ann and said a few sorrys and left them alone.

"I can't believe the guard thought you were Captain Hawthorne." Said Jason as he reminisced.

"Well, I could," said Ann with an air of someone who just invented warp drive. "We do look alike."

"Yeah, I guess, but…"

"But what?"

"Uhh…nothing."

"You got that right."

Jason starred anxiously at Ann and quickly pressed a few buttons. "Jason to Adam, you still there?"

"We're still monitoring." Said Adam through the comm.

"Good, stand by, we're landing."

The Fraser glided slowly towards the hot sands, whipping them up at the same time. It landed softly and the engine noises soon died down.

Jason and Ann coughed as they exited the craft amidst kicked-up sand.

"Jason to Adam…are you sure these are the right coordinates?"

"Positive."

Ann looked around. "Doesn't look like anything from here."

---

"Keep scanning." Said Adam.

"The signal is definitely coming from that spot." Said Nibbles.

"Did you hear that Jason?"

"Yeah, but we can't see anything. Are you su-"

"What? What did he say?"

"It seems he got cut off." Said PG.

"Nibbles?"

"According to this, there was a weak transporter signal right where they were."

"Where are they now?" Said NAH.

"I'm not reading their life signs." Said Nibbles.

Adam turned back to the viewscreen. "Full sensor scan, I want to know what the hell just happened."

"Yes sir."

---

Captain's Log, supplemental: We are currently in orbit of Garibaldi's planet and have searched for a weapon capable of destroying an entire fleet. Luckily, we seemed to have found just that. In a couple of minutes we'll see what mcmac and Jim have found. Meanwhile, we're not having a very good luck with the communications array, even with additional equipment from what's left of Garibaldi's lab. Needless to say, it looks like Starfleet will have to deal with this one on its own.

---

"What have you found?" Said CaptH as she leaned forward onto the briefing room table.

Mcmac pressed a few buttons on the LCARS panel beside him. "From our analysis, this seems to be a subspace tearing weapon."

"We tear subspace every time we go to warp." Said Ice casually.

"Yes," said Jim. "But you see, that is a controlled tear, our engines make sure of that. What we have here is an uncontrolled tear. In this case, once the tear is formed, there is nothing stopping the tear from expanding and expelling a lot of energy."

"Subspace energy." Said CaptH.

"Yes," Said mcmac. "According to our calculations, this weapon is capable of releasing enough energy to, well, destroy a whole fleet of ships."

"How can we deploy it?"

"We can attach it to a torpedo." Said Jim.

"How are we gonna use it on them if they're in slipstream?" Said TC.

"We can always use the deflector to weaken subspace and, you know, smoke them out." Said mcmac.

CaptH furrowed her brow and got up. She walked slowly to the LCARS panel and looked at it with interest. "Mcmac, how long before the second fleet launches?"

"If it were to launch at around the same time the first fleet reaches Earth, then we're looking at about 12 hours."

"How long will it take to make one of these things and make it ready for use?"

"About 8 hours." Said Jim.

"Make two, just in case."

"Uhh…captain?" Said TC. "There won't be enough time."

"I know that." Said CaptH. "We will just have to make some time. We'll warp out of here and by the time the second fleet catches up to us, we'll have the weapons ready, hopefully."

"Are you sure?" Said Ice. "They're a lot faster."

"And we're not even sure when they're launching."

CaptH turned around and looked at mcmac and Jim. "Whether this succeeds rest on your hands now. You'll need to make those weapons as fast as possible."

"We'll try." Said mcmac.

CaptH paced back to her seat. "If we fail, there is no telling what the Kraal will do. Mcmac, Jim, take anyone you need. Ice, set a course for Earth, engage at maximum warp as soon as possible."

"Yes ma'am."

"Dismissed."

---

"Keep scanning." Said Adam.

"Sir!" Said Nibbles. "I've scanned the same area 17 times now, there are no life signs!"

"Captain," said PG. "That transporter signal was very weak, they couldn't have been transported far."

"That's right." Said NAH. "Scan around it."

"Already did…several times." Said Nibbles.

"What about underground?" Offered Kaitz.

"It doesn't matter right now." Said Adam. "But PG's right, they couldn't have traveled far."

"What do you suggest we do?"

Adam starred at the viewscreen in front of him, half of it filled with the yellow color of the desert below. He placed a hand on Edwin's shoulder.

"Sir?"

"Edwin," Said Adam calmly. "You're a good pilot."

"Thanks sir."

"I know we've had our differences, but I'm asking you to trust me."

"Of course sir."

"Take us down into the desert." Said Adam.

Edwin turned around sharply. "Captain?"

"You heard me."

"Adam…" Said Kaitz. "Why don't we just send a shuttlecraft down instead?"

"Too dangerous, we don't know what we're facing."

"Sir," said Edwin. "Starfleet would surely object."

"Starfleet doesn't know our situation." Said Adam. "Now, take us down."

"But…"

"Trust me."

Edwin starred at Adam and bit his lip. "I trust you know what you're doing?"

"We'll see."

Edwin turned back to his consol hesitantly and pressed a few buttons. The yellow desert filled the view screen as the Dublin plunged towards the Earth.

---

Ann and Jason struggled against their captors as they are lead into the control room. They stopped resisting as soon as they laid their eyes on a battered and bruised Keyser, leaning against a wall amidst spatters of blood and pieces of cloth.

"Keyser!" Said Jason. "Let me go you morons!"

"What the hell did you do!" Said another man standing in the doorway. "Don't you see who that is!"

"The kid?"

"Come over here!"

The man holding Jason and Ann dropped them beside the unconscious Keyser carelessly and strode towards the other man.

"Listen Tray, that's Captain Hawthorne! We're in too deep! Do you know how much punishment we'll get if we're caught!"

"A lot of punishment!" Yelled Ann.

"Shut up!" Said Tray as he smacked her in the face.

"Don't do that!"

"Don't worry David, I'm pretty sure that's not her. I think Hawthorne's at the Briar Patch or something."

"Are you sure?"

"Pretty sure."

Tray and David starred at Jason and Ann in confusion. "Come on Tray, let's…let's leave them alone for a bit, we need to talk this over…and where's Wilson?"

"I don't know." Said Tray as he walked through the doorway.

Jason slid towards Ann with difficulty. His forehead has been cut and now there was blood running down his face. "Ann, Ann, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She said. "Check Keyser."

"Keyser," said Jason as he gently nudged him. "You alright?"

Keyser stayed silent.

"He's not…dead, is he?" Asked Ann.

"No," Said Jason. "He's still warm."

"Damn…" Said Ann. "What the hell have we gotten ourselves into?"

"I'm sorry." Said Jason quietly.

"Not your fault."

"No I mean…this must be pretty different from that 'Star Trek' show of yours."

"Oh that…" Said Ann. "It's…it's different, I'll give you that."

"I guess that depiction wasn't very real."

"Actually, it was." Said Ann, smiling. "In that show there were people like, what were they named? Tray and David? Well, there were people like those. But overall, everything's pretty much as I imagined."

Ann gave a hard look at Jason. "Listen, I'd rather live here and put up with this, than live back home where I know, for sure, that there are people like Tray and David out there."

Jason smiled slightly at this. "Let's try to get out of here."

---

"We're reaching the coordinates." Said GK as he tapped a few buttons.

The blue tunnel in front of them vanished and was replaced by a blue planet as the Triton City dropped out of Slipstream.

"Wow," Said EWDEE. "Kraal Prime looks pretty good."

"Not very different from a normal M-class planet if you ask me." Said GK.

"Can you find Kick?" Asked Boltini urgently.

"Scanning," Said GK. "Got her, Northern continent, seems to be a fairly large city."

"Beam her out!"

"Can't," said GK. "Wherever she is seems to have a forcefield around it…we'll need to deactivate it."

EWDEE looked at Boltini and both understood what they must do. "Take us down." Said EWDEE.

"Yes ma'am."

---

The ship rumbled around Adam as the atmosphere swept over it. He had a hunch that told him that this could be the last thing he will do as a Starfleet captain. He also thought about why he is doing this, why he is risking his career, and maybe even his life to save Keyser, who had been his enemy only a few years earlier.

"We're being hailed by Starfleet." Reported NAH. "Audio only."

Adam knew this was coming. "On speakers."

"Captain Adam, what do you think you're doing?" Said Admiral Janeway's voice.

"Just trying to rescue an old friend Admiral."

"There's no time for that." Said the Admiral irritably. "Ships have detected a Kraal fleet heading for Earth, we need to raise the planetary shields. Get back up here!"

"Just send us the shield frequencies later."

"The Kraal will detect it. I'm sorry for your friend Adam, but you have to get out of the atmosphere. This is an order!"

"I'm sorry Admiral," said Adam defiantly. "I can't obey that order."

He turned to NAH a made a slash sign against his throat. NAH looked at him hesitantly and then quickly punched a few buttons, cutting off transmission.

"I can't believe you just did that…to Admiral Janeway." Said PG.

"There's a first time for everything."

"We're clearing the cloud layer." Announced Nibbles.

Adam stood up and admired the landscape now rushing beneath the ship. Blue seas, sandy shores, rain forests, all wiping past them.

"Slow us down."

"Aye aye."

"How long before we reach the coordinates?"

"At this speed…about 1 minute."

---

Jason laid his head against the cool hard wall of the control room and starred around him. The room was very old; some of the paint was peeling away. Ann had her aching head on Jason's shoulder, sighing and thinking about a way to get out of here. Her mind skipped around like an encyclopedia, trying to find ways her Star Trek heroes had tried to get out of predicaments such as this.

Jason glanced over at Keyser who was showing some signs of waking up. He lolled his head sideways and uttered a snore. Jason could not believe that Keyser was actually asleep.

"Keyser…?"

"Uhh…."

"Dad…wake up!"

Keyser slowly opened his bruised and bloodshot eye and glanced at Jason. It took a while for him to register who, or what he is seeing.

"Jason!" Keyser said painfully as he attempted to move towards him. "What the hell are you doing here!"

"Trying to rescue you!"

Keyser lowered his head and tried to hide the anger from his son. "Why did you do that? I can take this, I'll get out of it."

"Doesn't look like that from here."

Ann was jolted out of her thoughts as an alarm went off. It made Jason jump as well. Keyser remained still and then slowly turned his head upwards toward the control consol.

As if on cue Tray and David ran into the room and pushed a few buttons, looking panicked.

"Oh no," said Tray. "According to this, there is a Starfleet ship that's heading for our location!"

"What!" Screamed David. "You mean it's gonna be here! On top of us!"

"I…I'm not sure! Why don't you go up top and check?"

"Me! What about you!"

"I got to monitor that ship! Get out there-"

"What about Wilson?"

"Where the hell is he!"

David looked around him urgently. "I…I have no idea."

"Exactly! Go up there and check!"

---

"30 seconds." Said Nibbles. "25…"

The Dublin cruised over New York City as they continued its journey to the middle of the Nevada desert. Forests now swept beneath them, now lakes, now farmlands…

"10 seconds…"

"Prepare for full stop." Said Adam.

"Yes sir."

The Dublin flew over the Rocky Mountains gracefully and emerged over the dusty sand dunes and canyons of Utah.

"Full stop!"

"Got it," said Edwin professionally. "Full stop."

---

A small trap door opened on the desert floor and a miserable figure slowly climbed through it. The desert winds were a little stronger than normal and it blew sand into his eyes. He coughed harshly and tried to look around him. All he saw was sand blowing about. He then realized that there was a perpetual humming sound about him, coming from all directions. He slowly looked up, fearing what he was about to see.

The Dublin hovered above his head, ready to strike.

David screamed loudly and jumped back into the service tunnel and quickly closing the trap door, shouting "Tray!" along the way.

---

"Open hailing frequencies." Said Adam.

"Hailing frequencies open."

"This is Captain Adam of the starship Dublin. We know you are holding Starfleet personnel and civilians as prisoners. Release them, or we will open fire."

There was silence.

"Can you get a transporter lock?" Said Adam as he turned to NAH.

"No, they seem to have a forcefield covering this whole area, we were lucky just to detect Keyser's signal."

"Damn…"

---

"Tray!" Screamed David. "Tray! Starfleet ship! Big! Over us!"

"I know!" Said Tray as he rushed across the consoles trying to figure out what to do. "Stop screaming!"

"I repeat," Said Adam's voice. "If you do not surrender immediately, we will open fire."

"What do we do?" Said David. "Should we reply?"

"What are we going to say?"

"I don't know."

"You have 1 minute to comply." Said Adam's voice.

Keyser's swollen lips slowly cracked into a smile as he watched the two bumbling around.

"What are you smiling at!" Said Tray.

"I'm…laughing at stupidity…" Said Keyser with difficulty.

Without warning a green light flashed on the opposite side of the room. Just as fast the light disappeared and out stepped Terry.

"Wilson!" Said David with relief. "Where the heck have you been? You got to help us! Starfleet's on our tail!"

"I'm sorry I can't." Said Terry as he took out a phaser and looked at it in his hand.

Tray reacted in a flash and pulled out his phaser as well and aimed it at Terry. "What are you doing?"

"Just refining the settings."

"Put that away and help us! We don't have much time."

"I'm sorry I can't do that." Said Terry calmly.

"Why not!" Screamed David. "Listen! You got to help us! We can't understand any of these controls here!"

"Of course not, you're not trained Section 31 agents."

Realization dawned on David's face as he glanced at the consol to Terry, then at Keyser. "Section 31…you're using us! Aren't you! You led us here to this place, saying that it would be a good hide out! You had all those alone times with Keyser…what's going on!"

"I'm afraid you know too much David." Said Terry and quickly vaporized him.

Tray stepped back in horror and fired his phaser at Terry. It stuck him just above the thigh. Instead of a wound, there was a green shimmer.

"Personal forcefield…" Said Tray. "What do you want with us!"

"It's easier this way." Said Terry and promptly vaporized Tray.

Jason watched this with his mouth hanging open. Beside him Ann was filled with a mix of horror and wonder at the same time: she was up close with THE Section 31. Keyser chuckled through all of this.

"You know," said Keyser. "You could've just scanned me when I was sleeping…"

"In the middle of a city?" Said Terry with a laugh. "No way. Besides, this way I not only get some scans I also get a view of some strange people."

"Part of the job eh?"

"You know it."

"So, how were the scans?"

"We had to go to Plan B, luckily we already have people working on it."

"That's nice."

Terry looked at Jason and Ann. "Friends of Keyser's?"

"Close…close friends." Said Jason.

"Well, that's good, he needs as many as he could get."

"Hey!"

"Just joking…old friend."

Terry walked in wide strides over to the consol beside Keyser and casually pressed a few buttons. The ambient noise of the facility died down.

"Thanks Terry."

"It was good seeing you Keyser." Said Terry as he beamed away.

---

"Still no response." Said NAH.

Adam sighed. "Standby transporters, prepare to fire pulse phasers."

"Wait!" Said Nibbles. "The forcefield is dropping!"

"Transporters! Beam them out!"

"We're being hailed by Starfleet again, audio only."

Thoughts raced through Adam's mind. He has accomplished his goal, now he is going to face the music. "Let's hear it."

"Captain," Said Admiral Janeway. "I've decided not to give you a court martial, but that's only if you comply with the order I'm about to give."

"I'll try."

"The Kraal has arrived in this system, we have to seal the planet _now_. Get up here, we need all the ships we can have."

"Yes ma'am."

"We'll be waiting." Said Admiral Janeway as the transmission ended.

"Nibbles," said Adam. "Transport Jason and the others down near PG's runabout, we can't take them into battle."

"Alright."

"Once that's over…Edwin, take us up."

"Yes sir."

"Thanks Edwin."

"No problem sir."

---

Jason, Keyser, and Ann materialized amidst swirling sand as the massive Dublin rose above them. Jason carefully shielded his eyes and looked gingerly at it. It was something he had never seen before as far as he remembers: a Starship taking off.

"Jason," said Adam's voice through his combadge. "Take care of everyone else, we got business to attend to."

"I'll do what I can Adam." Said Jason.

"Good luck then."

"Thanks."

The Dublin turned around gracefully and streaked away, almost noiselessly, into the blue sky.

---

"Holy crap…"

The cloaked Triton City flew across the lush landscape of Kraal Prime, its crew almost forgetting that the most intelligent species living on it is trying to kill them all.

"Snap out of it!" Said EWDEE.

"Yeah…this place is almost as good as Margra 2." Said GK. "Alright, I got a clear lock on Kick, she's in a building of some sorts up ahead, it has a force field around it."

"Just like what we saw from orbit."

"Yeah…approaching the coordinates."

The Triton City cleared a forest-covered mountain and was suddenly flying over a massive city. Roads and buildings dotted the skyline and a subtle haze hung over it.

"Not…quite as beautiful now…" said GK. "Oh well…alright, time to see what we're up against. Hold on."

GK quickly pressed a few buttons and the Triton City decloaked. Right away pulse phasers flared from its bow and struck the building at around midway up. The blue force field shimmered, but did not give.

"Ok…let's try again."

The small ship flew around the building and once again targeted the same spot and once again the force filed shimmered.

"Come on!" Said Boltini under his breath.

There was a rough sound, as if the weapons set off an avalanche. Before their eyes a chuck of the building fragmented and collapsed into the streets below. The force field collapsed with it.

"Alright!" Said EWDEE in delight. "Beam her out!"

"Not that simple," Said GK. "There are more layers of force fields inside…this must be a very important building."

"So you can't get her out!"

"Not while those force fields blocks us from her." Said GK bluntly. "Someone needs to go in there and deactivate them."

"I'll go." Said Boltini resolutely.

"Me too." Said EWDEE.

"Alright, I'll keeping an eye on you two."

The Triton City slowed down and quickly transported EWDEE and Boltini into an empty hull way on the 30th floor.

"Good luck." Said GK's voice quietly through EWDEE's combadge.

---

"I just got word from Jim," said mcmac. "He's finished the weapon."

"Good," Said CaptH. "Mr. Ice, drop us out of warp. Mcmac, full scans."

The Vanguard dropped out of warp with a flash and flew in a giant half circle as it pointed itself at the oncoming Kraal fleet.

"I'm not reading any Slipstream signatures." Said mcmac. "So it's either they've gone in a different route…or they're not here yet."

"Let's hope it's the latter." Said CaptH, sitting down. "Now, gentlemen, we play the waiting game."

---

"We're 20 meters from the force field." Said Boltini as he studied a Tricorder. "Come on!"

EWDEE and Boltini ran quickly across an empty cross section in the belly of the building as startled voices rang from every direction. There were footsteps and phaser fire. Boltini and EWDEE looked at each other: What's the point of the phaser fire?

They turned another corner and found a ring of light circling the hallway.

"It's the force field!" Said EWDEE.

"Stand back." Said Boltini as he raised his phaser.

"The hell I will." Said EWDEE and did the same.

Phaser fire burst forth from their weapons. The force field shimmered and flickered. There was a small buzzing noise, and the circle of light went out.

"Kick is on the move." Said Boltini, again studying his tricorder. "She's heading for us."

"She must have detected us."

"Stand right there!"

EWDEE and Boltini raised their heads and starred down the barrel of a Kraal phaser rifle. The guard stood there, blood running down his forehead.

"Sir," he talked into a communication device. "I got some humans, it's not Kick though."

A burst of phaser fire came out of nowhere and hit the guard on the neck, knocking him sideways into the wall and crumpled in a heap.

A figure stepped out from the corner in front of EWDEE and Boltini and starred at the guard with glee.

"Kick?"

Kick turned her head and starred at them in amazement. One moment later, a smile spread across her sweat-stained face.

"Kick!" Said Boltini as he went and hugged her.

"It's…it's good to see you again Kick." Said EWDEE.

"I…I can't believe this…" Said Kick shakily. "How did you get here?"

"We got GK to ferry us here." Said Boltini. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

"No argument from me." Said Kick.

"Wait," Said EWDEE. "Oh no…we're surrounded."

"Tell GK to beam us out of here." Said Kick.

"Boltini to GK…GK come in!"

There was a slight silence before a sound similar to a bomb going off emanated from the combadge.

"What's going on?" Said EWDEE.

"I don't know…"

"Let's get out of here!" Said Kick. "Maybe we'll see GK if we get down to the street."

Weapons fire flew past Boltini's head as multiple guards appeared around the corner. Kick spotted a grate and made for it, quickly whipping the grate covering off.

"Quick! Get in!" Said Kick as she shot the guard with one burst of phaser fire. "There's more of them coming!"

Another phaser burst hit Boltini on the shoulder. He toppled onto the ground, face tense with pain.

"Do not resist!" Shouted a guard from the left.

"Get in Kick!" Said EWDEE as she looked at Boltini's wound.

"But…"

"Just go!"

Kick starred at EWDEE for one fleeting moment and slid into the grate. She closed the grate just in time to see EWDEE and a fainting Boltini get taken away by the guards.

She sighed heavily and reached into her pocket, pulling out a small timer. The number on it counted down, signaling that something was going to happen in 5 minutes.

She sighed again and began to crawl in the same direction as where EWDEE and Boltini were taken.

---

The Vanguard sat quietly in the middle of deep space. The atmosphere within its bridge was tense; everyone was waiting for some kind of signal, anything…

"I'm detecting slipstream signatures!" Reported mcmac.

"Full power to deflector!" Said CaptH. "Smoke them out!"

The deflector of the Vanguard started to glow blue more brilliantly. The space ahead of them started to shimmer, like distant objects on a hot, sunny day.

---

"Sir," Said the Kraal helm officer. "I'm reading instability in subspace ahead."

"Will it interfere with our engines?" Said Captain Corun.

"Most definitely."

"Hail the fleet, drop us back into normal space."

"Yes sir."

Blue apertures opened across space in front of the Vanguard. It was a sight to behold, thousands of blue dots appearing out of nowhere, each emitting in turn a black speck.

"Sir…I believe this instability is generated artificially."

"Explain."

"I'm reading a powerful energy wave being emitted from a…Federation ship up ahead."

"Federation?"

"The Vanguard, to be more precise."

A smile crept over Corun's face.

"So, Barose didn't get rid of it afterall. Prepare weapons, destroy it."

"Yes sir."

---

"The entire fleet has dropped back into normal space." Announced mcmac.

"Target the middle of the fleet."

"Target locked." Said Trent.

"Fire!"

A yellow point of light flew out of the torpedo tube directly above the Vanguard's bright deflector dish. It soared through empty space as it kamikazied towards the Kraal fleet.

"Activity?"

"The Kraal fleet is powering up their weapons…they're targeting the weapon."

"Prepare for the second one."

"Aye aye."

---

"They've fired some kind of weapon." Said the Kraal tactical officer.

"Open fire! Destroy it!"

Hails of torpedoes and phasers blasted at the warhead as it plowed its way through the fleet.

"It's overloading."

---

"The weapon is overloading." Said mcmac.

"Fire the second one!"

Another point of light flew away from Vanguard. In the distance the first missile disintegrated unimpressively.

---

"They've fired another warhead!"

"Destroy it!"

Weapons fire erupted once again from the Kraal ships, striking the missile again and again. It kept going; it flew beside ships, over them, below them.

"I'm reading a build up of energy within the weapon."

"Is it overloading?"

"Not exactly…"

---

A blinding flash of light appeared in the middle of the Kraal fleet, blanketing them all. The bridge crew of the Vanguard shielded their eyes as a shockwave passed over them.

"Yeah!" Said Ice.

"Not yet Mr. Ice." Said CaptH. "Get us out of here, maximum speed!"

The Vanguard quickly turned around and flew away from the expanding cloud of light. The ship shuttered as wave after wave of subspace energy passed by them.

Just as sudden, it all stopped. The ship stopped shaking, the space once again returned to its inky blackness.

"Aft viewer." Said CaptH.

She could just make out bits and pieces of Kraal ships floating around amidst countless other pieces of debris. A tinge of guilt swept through her over the deaths of the crewmen manning those ships, but she quickly reminded herself that this was war, and one side has to win.

"Any active Kraal ships?"

"None that I could detect." Said mcmac. "But the residual radiation is blocking my sensors."

"That's good enough." Said CaptH. "Ice, full power to warp engines-"

"Can't, subspace is too damaged to go to warp around here."

"I guess we found out why Starfleet never used this technology." Said TC.

"That's alright, we've accomplished our task." Said CaptH. "Set a course for Earth, full impulse."

"Aye aye."

---

"Stand!" Said the Kraal guard as he led EWDEE and Boltini into an office.

Boltini was collapsing under his own weight, blood flowing like a river down his side. EWDEE tried to hold Boltini up to no avail.

The chair that sat behind a large wooden desk in front of them turned around and a portly Kraal male faced them, his forehead and collar wet with sweat.

"Hold him up." He said, pointing at Boltini. The guards did as they are told. "Now, I want to know where Kick is."

EWDEE starred at him blankly.

"Speak, human!"

"I don't know."

The portly man hit the table with his fist. "Listen, do you know what your little friend is doing?"

"She's living her life!" Said Boltini, trying to struggle away from the guard and in turn splashing him with blood.

"Not quite." Said the man. "She's been killing our citizens, blowing up our buildings! She's a terrorist!"

EWDEE's mouth hung open, unable to accept this. Garibalid's chip is gone, why is she acting like this? She can't be.

"You're lying."

"No I'm not. She's killed thousands of our citizens, not military men, citizens, common civilians. In fact, we have reasons to believe that she's planted a bomb in this very building!"

"No…"

"Tell me where she is! Tell me where her hide out is!"

"We don't know!" Screamed EWDEE. "We're not from here!"

"That much is clear."

"No, I mean…I mean we're not accomplices, if that's what you're thinking, we just want to take her home!"

"You can't." Said the man with dignity. "She is guilty under Kraal law. She needs to be punished!"

EWDEE saw it. A blur flying behind the man, outside the building, quickly followed by two other blurs. There were bright flashes between them.

"GK!"

"Who?"

"Uh…no one."

The man turned around and glanced outside the window. He turned around with a slight smile on his face.

"That ship…it's yours, isn't it?"

"What's happening to it?"

"It's under attack." Said the man. "You tell us where Kick is and we stop the attack."

"But we don't know where she is!"

"You're lying!"

"No we're not!"

---

Kick crawled through the ventilation system and fiddled with something in her hand. She quickly glanced at the countdown and sighed again. She looked in her other hand and pressed a few blinking buttons on a small cylindrical device; she was having troubles with it.

She kept crawling and kept glancing at the countdown. She didn't have much time left. She followed the trail of blood as she peeked into the hallway with each passing grate. She was getting close; she could hear the nearby yelling.

"2 minutes…" She sighed.

---

"Fine!" Said the man. "You humans have brought a lot of troubles for us you know?"

"Us!" Said EWDEE indignantly. "I guess you invading our space had nothing to do with it!"

"We have reasons for that…"

"I don't care!"

"Enough already!" Said the man angrily. "We have no time for this!"

He looked around stuttering. "Guards…execute them! If they don't want to divulge information…they're useless."

"No!" Said Boltini, now trying to stay conscious. "Don't shoot!"

In a flash of blue light both Boltini and EWDEE vanished. The guards shot and hit the wall opposite, making craters in the hand-crafted wall patterns.

---

A phaser blast came from a grate and hit a guard squarely in the chest. The guard reeled and fell to the ground. The grate opened and out sprinted Kick. She grabbed the guard's weapon and ran towards the outside of the building.

She glanced at a tricorder and furrowed her brow: There's no way down anymore, guards were everywhere. She looked around and saw a partially collapsed wall to her right. There was a ray of light shining through it.

She ran for it and torn down the collapsed wall. Smoke filled her lungs and she coughed noisily. She waved her hand around her head and gasped at what she saw: The side of the building was missing. She quickly stepped across the threshold of the collapsed wall and carefully walked into the ruin. In a sudden movement the Triton City flashed past her, tagging along behind two Kraal fighters. Kick ran to the very edge and peered off into the distance. She saw them, the Triton City dodging and diving, avoiding weapons fire.

She quickly pressed a few well-chosen buttons on the small cylindrical device, and a communicator shimmered into view at her feet. She picked it up gently.

"Kick to GK…come in!"

A buzzing sound came from it.

"GK!"

"Kick…?" Said a voice through the static. "Is that you?"

"Yeah! Beam me out of here!"

"Can't!" Said GK. "The building's reestablished its exterior force field. I'm too busy with the Kraal ships to get rid of it!"

Kick clenched her fist and cursed. She quickly took out the countdown device and looked at it.

"GK…if the force field dropped…you could beam me up, right?"

"I could."

"Alright…get ready."

Kick glanced at the countdown one more time as it reached zero. She braced herself.

The ground shook beneath her; she could see the bright flames erupting around her. The ruined floor collapsed beneath her, she could hear people screaming. She put all of her strength into her legs and leapt off of the crumbling building.

---

GK swung around one last time and had the building in his view when the middle of it blew up. A massive fireball rose up into the sky, followed by the entire top half toppling onto the bottom half. Horror filled GK as he starred on at the ghastly sight.

His sensors beeped.

He quickly punched a few buttons and an ash-covered Kick appeared behind him.

"Get us out of here!" She said.

"Uhh…alright."

---

"Report!" Yelled Corun into the dark bridge.

"I don't know what that explosion was…" said the tactical officer. "But it destroyed the entire fleet…I think. Sensors are malfunctioning."

"How…how can one Federation ship do such damage!" Yelled Corun in anger.

"Not sure…"

"We're being hailed…it's a Kraal ship."

"I thought they were all destroyed…"

"Our sensors are malfunctioning."

Corun looked at his ops officer uncertainly. "Let's hear what the other ship has to say."

"Captain Corun…this is Commander Torus. Do you require assistance?"

"How many ships do you detect?"

"Sir?"

"How many ships can you detect that are functioning?"

"Uhh…our sensors show that there is another ship out there which is still functioning pretty well…why sir?"

"Because, commander," Said Corun maliciously. "I will make the Vanguard pay for what they've done…"

---

The Dublin cleared the atmosphere just as the planetary shield snapped into place.

"I'm detecting a lot of ships…" Said Nibbles.

"A little more concrete please…"

"Oh, right, sorry." Said Nibbles. "I'm detecting…2500 Kraal ships."

"On screen."

A massive black army appeared on the viewscreen, surrounded in the forefront by a fleet of Starfleet ships that looked tiny in comparison.

"My God…" said Kaitz.

"We come to it at last," Said Adam. "The Great Battle of our time."

"Orders sir?"

"Red alert…battlestations!"

---

"They're coming in for another pass!" Shouted mcmac through the fine dust now settling on the bridge.

"Evasive maneuvers!" Cried CaptH as a ceiling beam narrowly missed her right shoulder. "Come about, full phasers!"

The ship rocked beneath them, smoke bloomed from the consoles, the air smelled of machinery. Sparks burst forth from the walls as circuit after circuit overload. The crew hung on to the railings, to themselves as the Vanguard came apart around them.

"We're loosing shields!" Yelled Trent. "We're too easy a target!"

"Ice!" Said CaptH, coughing. "Take us back into the debris field, we might be able to loose them in there!"

"Aye aye!"

---

The warp core's gentle blue light pierced through the fire and smoke now surrounding it. Various officers ran around frantically putting off fires as they flared up all over Engineering.

Jim rushed around, hammering into the LCARS to get the ship stable. Sparks licked his face as he quickly put his arm in front of it. The ship shook around him, he could hear the bulkheads buckling under the stress of the weapons outside.

"Anderson!" He yelled across Engineering. "Get out of there! There's an overlo-"

The wall blew outwards and caught young Anderson in a cloud of dust and shrapnel. Jim attempted to walk over as the floor tilted beneath him. He quickly waved the cloud apart and saw Anderson's grotesquely fractured face starring back at him. He gentle put a hand on Anderson's torn shoulder and got back up.

He starred around Engineering; the floor was laden with loose or trashed equipment, as well as bodies of people who he had known since he graduated from Starfleet Academy. He tired hard to fight back tears and made to go to a side panel when the ship shook again, causing him to loose balance.

He looked up slowly; smoke filled his vision as another volley hit the ship. The ambient sound changed. He rubbed his forehead and instinctively looked at the warp core.

"Oh no…"

---

"This is Admiral Janeway," Said the voice across the fleet's comm. System. "Galaxy wings 2 and 3, target leading Kraal battle cruisers! Defiant wings circumvent front and head for the middle, take care of the scouts. We'll handle the rest!"

"You heard the lady." Said Adam. "Let's see what this ship can do."

The Dublin swerved left and right among the enemy ships as they fired round after round of ammo at it. Streaks and bolts of weapons fire flashed past as the fleets engaged each other.

"Pulse phasers! Fire!"

"Yes sir!"

"We got a problem here." Said Nibbles. "A wing of Kraal ships has broken off from the main fleet…it's heading for Spacedock!"

"They know about the source of the planetary shielding!" Said NAH.

"Edwin, set a course for Spacedock immediately!"

"Aye aye!"

---

The Vanguard's bridge burned as the Kraal ships let loose their anger on the ship. The continuous sound of bulkheads bending under the stress unnerved the crew as they tried to hold on to the walls. CaptH coughed through the smoke and starred blurry-eyed at the viewscreen. Pieces of debris floated past it.

"Almost there…" Said Ice, carefully, touching the buttons on the over-worked navigation consol.

The ship shook again.

"Return fire!"

"Forward Phasers are down!"

"We got a hull breach on deck 7!"

"Seal it off!"

"We're entering the debris field captain!" Said Ice.

"We got an overload in the messhull." Said mcmac. "It's spreading."

"Evacuate that deck, and hold on!"

Flames erupted from the ship as the messhull blew out into space among debris and bodies. The floor of the bridge shook violently and buckled from the explosions directly beneath. CaptH fell sideways onto the floor as the ground beside her blew upwards.

"Captain!"

"I'm alright…"

"The force field is holding." Said mcmac. "That's a first."

CaptH peered uncertainly through the dark hole leading to a derelict messhull underneath.

"Aft viewer." She said as she refocused her attention at the viewscreen. A piece of debris floated between her and the oncoming Kraal ships.

"Perfect…aft phasers."

"Ready."

"Target that piece of debris on my mark."

"Captain?"

"Let's hope it works." Said CaptH.

The Kraal ships flew closer and closer and let loose their firepower on the Vanguard. The ship shook violently, but that did not keep CaptH's attention off of the viewscreen.

"NOW!"

A lone stream of energy erupted from the aft of the Vanguard and struck the debris on the side. It spun and floated away like a leaf floating on water. The lead Kraal ship swerved, the piece of debris sliced through its dark wings. Fire spurted from it before it collided with the derelict of a battle cruiser and exploding in a ball of fire.

"Yes!" Said mcmac.

"One down…two to go…"

---

Jim coughed through the heavy mist now being pumped out of the groaning warp core as he attempted to get to the station near it. He looked at the screens and furrowed his brow.

"Sir!" Yelled Ensign Cavendish from across Engineering. "We have to get out of here! We need to dump the core!"

"Hell no!" Said Jim, not looking up once at the ensign. "They told me to take care of the ship, and I'm gonna do just that!"

"What are you talking about sir! We need to-"

"We need to SAVE THE SHIP!" Yelled Jim. "Come on! I'm reading microfactures across the core, if we fix that…"

"We have to get out of here!" Yelled Cavendish as he coughed through his cuffs. "There's no time!"

"Listen!" Said Jim as he starred at the ensign intently. "There's always time! There's always a chance at saving the ship! I'm not gonna let it go just because of some cracks! Now help me or get the hell out!"

Ensign Cavendish looked uncertainly at Jim and quickly waved his arms around to spread the mist now permeating every corner of Engineering and headed for a station near the warp core.

"That's better!"

---

"This is Spacedock controls, weapons are coming online, I repeat, weapons are coming online."

The message blared through the superstructure of Spacedock. Hidden weapons swiveled into place as the large mushroom top of the station turned into a weapons platform.

"Target the power generator!" Ordered General Barose as his fleet bared down on Spacedock, weapons blazing. Phaser fire criss-crossed the space above Earth, its citizens virtually unaware of the battle overhead.

"They're firing at Spacedock!" Said Nibbles.

"PG, all weapons, fire at will!"

"Aye aye!"

The Dublin fired its pulse phasers and Quantum Torpedoes as it swooped through the crowd of Kraal ships. Their shields flickered and shimmered.

"Minor damage." Said Nibbles. "It's not enough."

"I know," Said PG. "Why don't we try what we did to the Incinerator a year ago?"

"Incendiary." Said NAH.

"Right."

"You mean use our tractor beam and…"

"Yeah…"

Adam pondered this for a moment as the ship rocked around him. "Edwin, set a course for the nearest scout ship. NAH, get ready with the tractor beam."

"Yes sir." Said NAH smartly.

"What are we doing sir?" Asked Edwin.

"You'll see."

---

"I'm reading a core breach on one of the ships!" Said mcmac.

CaptH leaned against the broken railings as she starred at the blurring view screen, her face covered in soot. The Kraal scout ship drifted into view followed by a fiery trail. The ship shook again as the ship exploded in front of them, raining them with debris and shrapnel.

"One left…" Said CaptH breathlessly.

The ship moaned under the stress of repeated weapons fire. The walls black with dust and charred circuitry. The ship was a burning wreck among Kraal debris that looked no different.

The remaining Kraal ship turned around slowly and fired another volley at the crippled Vanguard, cleanly blowing off a section of the hull.

"I don't think we have the resources for this last one…" Said Trent as he tried to wipe the blood from his blond hair.

"Maybe you're right about the resources." Said CaptH. "But we still…still have ingenuity! Mcmac, let me see the debris field!"

The ship rocked around them as mcmac quickly punched up the best view of the Kraal fleet debris field he could. CaptH starred at it silently for a moment, and then walked forward towards it.

"There!" She indicated with her finger. "Ice, see that Battlecruiser?"

"Yeah…"

"Take us behind that."

"Captain…"

"Just do it Ice, I got a plan."

"What's the plan?" Asked mcmac.

"You'll see."

---

"NOW!"

NAH, like an android, hammered on his LCARS panel. The green haze connecting them a Kraal scout ship disappeared and the scout ship went spinning towards a Kraal Battlecruiser. The crew cheered as they both disappeared behind a fireball.

"I like that little spin you put on it." Said Adam.

"There's more where that came from."

"I think we got our next target." Said Nibbles. "120 mark 32."

"You heard her Edwin." Said Adam ecstatically.

"I must say," said Edwin with a slight smile on his face. "This is quite…out there."

"Well, when you're physically…uh…out there in the boundaries of the Federation…you learn a few things." Said PG.

The ship swayed as the viewscreen was bathed in blue light. The light grew more intense as the ship kept shaking.

"What's going on?"

"We got a problem." Said Nibbles. "I'm reading 4 Kraal scout ships, they all got their tractor beams aimed at us."

"They're stealing our thing!" Said NAH.

The ship swung around sharply and headed straight for the bulbous end of Spacedock.

"Where the hell are they taking us!" Screamed PG through the gloom.

"We're on a collision course with Spacedock!"

"Full powers to thrusters!"

The Dublin twisted and turned in the tractor beams, all the time plunging head first towards Spacedock.

"Our engines are at the limits!" Said Edwin.

"Release two of the escape pods." Said Adam.

The ports on top of the Dublin opened and two small escape pods flew out of them like weapons. They didn't fly far: they smashed headlong into the top Kraal scout ship. The Dublin's engines kicked in and narrowly missed the station.

"That was close…" Said Kaitz.

"We got an overload in the Navigational controls." Said Nibbles.

"Edwin!"

Edwin tried to push away but it was no use. He was blasted backwards by the sparks and plume of fire that erupted out of the now-cracked panel. He laid on the floor, head bleeding, eyes shut tightly.

"Edwin!" Yelled Adam as he jumped to his knees and picked up Edwin slowly. He looked at him in horror and closed his eyes.

"He's dead."

"Sir!" Said Nibbles. "We got more problems!"

Adam turned around and faced the viewscreen. Two more scout ships came at them and tractored them in an instant. The ship flipped and tossed as more scout ships tethered themselves with it.

Adam jumped at the navigational consol and started pressing random buttons, hoping to make it work.

"I got no helm control!" Screamed Adam. He looked up: Spacedock loomed ever closer on the viewscreen.

"All hands! Abandon ship! All hands! Aban-"

---

Admiral Janeway watched as the small ship smashed itself into Spacedock, her face frozen in a look of horror. Flames spread across the interiors of the station, vaporizing officers on contact. Whoever was left felt a change in the atmosphere: the sounds quieted; there were yells for help and cries of pain. The fusion core shuttered and breached. The lower half of the station fractured as flames erupted out of every port. In a brief moment time froze, Kraal and Starfleet alike starred on as fiery cracks spread themselves along the length of Spacedock. In the next moment, it all changed: The superstructure tore itself apart as the shockwave from the fusion core breach spread out from the station itself. The wave swept through the Kraal and the Federation fleet, leaving everyone in shock.

General Barose barely flinched as the shockwave passed over his Battlecruiser. He smiled at it, gleefully pointing out when the planetary shields failed.

"Send in the troops."

---

"I can't believe this," said Ensign Cavendish as he starred at the panel in front of him. "Sir…you're doing it! You're sealing them!"

He could hear Jim coughing as the sound of the warp core died down and gradually vanished. The pale blue swirls gradually faded into dull grey. The mists started to spread out and clear away.

"Sir?"

Jim laid against the warp core casing, a line of drool came from his mouth. Cavendish quickly ducked down beneath the orange railings and dragged Jim onto the cold Engineering floor.

"Sir!" Cried Cavendish. "Wake up!"

Jim's eyes flickered open slowly and a smile spread over his face. "I…I told you…"

"Sorry I doubted your sir." Said Cavendish happily. "I'll go and get a medikit…"

"Told ya B, told you I can take care of Engineering! You too Vanessa! Didn't you doubt me or something?"

Cavendish set the medikit down beside him and looked at his superior with a new sense of pity.

"Told you I could manage…"

---

"Warp drive's offline!" Reported mcmac.

"Doesn't matter right now!" Said CaptH.

"We've reached the Battlecruiser." Said Ice. "Let's see what you got up your sleeve Captain."

"Alright, open a ship wide channel. This is the Captain, evacuate the frontal sections immediately! I repeat! Evacuate the frontal sections!"

"I think I know what you're doing." Said mcmac.

"Then brace yourself." Said CaptH. "Where's the Kraal ship now?"

"They're on the other side of the Battlecruiser…they're turning around now."

"Full power to engines on my mark Mr. Ice."

"Yes ma'am."

---

Starfleet officers were surprised as thousands of Kraal soldiers beamed in across the city of San Francisco. They quickly took out their phaser rifles but it was no use. The Kraal fired with 100 accuracy and gunned down Starfleet security in a flash.

The Kraal troops ran around corridors at lightning speed, making for Central Starfleet Command. Once they got there they kicked down the doors and started firing. The most important Admirals, even the Federation president, didn't stand a chance.

The smoke cleared and the lead Kraal reported that they finished the job. They looked about them proudly, examining the Starfleet machinery that was now theirs.

---

"They're approaching us." Said mcmac.

"How are they approaching us?"

"…from the top."

"Full power to ventral thrusters, brace for impact!"

The Vanguard slowly reared up its wrecked hull above the edge of the floating carcass of the Kraal Battlecruiser. Captain Corun's eyes opened wide as he saw the damaged saucer of the Vanguard came at him. He barely had time to exclaim anything as it cut through his ship and cleanly sliced it in two.

The crew of the Vanguard staggered as they lost the tip of their ship. But they watched jubilantly as the slices of the last Kraal ship was enveloped in a cloud of fire.

---

"I'm reading numerous Transporter signals…all Kraal." Said Lieutenant Kim.

"Can we block them?"

"Too powerful, even the entire fleet can't come up with the power the Kraal is putting forth right now."

"We're being hailed…it's the lead Kraal ship, audio only."

"On speakers."

"As you can all see," said General Barose. It was difficult not to notice the happiness in his voice. "My troops have won over yours, Earth has been taken. Surrender your ships immediately; there is no point in fighting now."

There was a deafening silence.

"And just to make sure you know I'm clear in this," Said Barose. "We are going to show you what happens if you don't comply."

Lieutenant Kim's consol beeped. "Admiral, I'm picking up weapons fire from the Kraal ships, they're all targeting the Earth!"

"Where?"

"The city of Cairo has been destroyed."

"If we're forced to," said Barose's voice again. "We will have to repeat what we just did…if we're forced to. So, surrender your ships immediately."

Admiral Janeway looked on at the stillness of the fleets of ships in front of her, her lips tight.

"The hell we will!" She said. "Open a channel to the fleet. This is Admiral Janeway, set a course out of here! I repeat, set a course away from the Sol system! That means you Tom."

"Aye aye."

"We're running away?" Asked Chakotey, rising behind her.

"We'll be back…I promise."

---

_Captain's Log, Supplemental: The damage to the Vanguard has been beyond extreme, over half of the crew is injured, and 23 people are dead. Anyone who has the smallest speck in medical training is helping out, a fact of which I'm proud of. We are currently heading back to the Briar Patch, we hope that the clouds would protect us from any other attackers, but it's safe to say that, before we get warp drive back up, we're not going anywhere._

---

"Alright, Johnson, you go with Hainemenn to the aft, seal the microbreaches there. Dilent, you and Hayes check out the EPS conduits on Deck 6. I'll go inspect the frontal breach, and Coorde, maybe you could take a look at what's left of messhull." Said Jim as he quickly put on his spacesuit. "And Ramirez…Ramirez?"

Ensign Ramirez sat at the side of the room, silently looking down at the floor. His eyes frozen in a look of horror.

"Ramirez…I'm talking to you!"

"Sir," said Lieutenant Coorde. "He's lost his wife…"

Jim looked back at Coorde and sighed. He nodded. "Alright, everyone clear as to what they're doing?"

"Yes sir." They replied.

"What about me sir?" Said Ramirez sheepishly.

"You can have a break." Said Jim, trying to be nice.

"No, I'll do something sir."

"Fine…go with Coorde to the messhull."

"Thank you sir."

Jim watched as his engineering crew silently filed out of the changing room. He swept his hand through his hair and sighed again. He was not used to loosing so many people, nearly half of his team. He starred at the wall for a brief moment and quickly grabbed his helmet and headed for the door.

"Captain!"

"Hello Jim," Said CaptH, her face blank as she stood in the doorway. "Where are you going?"

"The frontal breach, gonna go inspect it."

"I'll come with…you don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all Captain."

---

Jim and CaptH crept through the bowls of the ruined ship with bodies strewn left and right among debris from the walls. They were surrounded by destruction: doors hanging sideways off of its hinges, holes in the floor and walls, burn marks across pretty much everything. Jim reached forward when they reached a door and slowly pried it open.

"Pretty…" Said Jim as he looked out at the corridor on the other side of the door. It ended in space. An orange haze hovered in the middle of their vision and stars surrounded it.

"You know," said Jim. "I like this better, no viewscreen, just the stars themselves."

"Yeah…"

Jim bent down and started to scan the walls. CaptH stood there, feeling slightly useless. She looked around at the destruction and silently reminded herself that she did this. Oh sure, it might have saved the ship, but she did this, she sliced off the front of the ship, she killed those who didn't make it out in time.

CaptH walked forward towards space slowly, looking unblinkingly at the stars and the nebulae around the ship.

"Careful captain." Said Jim.

CaptH stayed silent. She kept walking until she felt something soft beneath her feet. She looked down and saw that she had stepped on a hand. She had thought it was just part of this destruction. She bent down slowly and lifted the slab of hull from the young officers body. He glared back at her through empty eye sockets.

CaptH's face twitched slightly and slowly she put the piece of hull back over the ensign, as if it was a blanket.

"It's not your fault captain." Said Jim. "You had to do this."

"I'm not so sure about that."

"You saved the ship captain, you know that."

CaptH glanced at Jim as he kept scanning. "Thanks Jim."

"No problem captain."

"I'll be…I'll be on the bridge."

"I'll let you know of my progress."

"Thanks for the talk."

"Anytime."

---

"There you are," said mcmac as a tired CaptH came through the turbolift doors on the bridge. "I've been wondering where you were."

"Just inspected the ship a little." Said CaptH. "How are the repairs going?"

"We got short ranged sensors back, external communications…short range only."

"Tactical?"

"No shields, no weapons, no nothing, we got none of those."

"Damn…"

"Sorry captain, they're just really hard to repair with the stuff they went through."

"No, I understand. You have the bridge; I'll be in my ready room."

CaptH made for the ready room door, thirsty for some black coffee. She then realized that the replicators were out.

She stopped short and turned to mcmac. "Is the…is the replicators working?"

"No coffee for now captain."

"That's just great…"

Mcmac's consol beeped. "We got company. It just dropped out of warp."

"Warp? It's not Kraal then?"

"No…I can't believe this…It's Voyager!"

CaptH's eyes lit up. "Hail them, quick!"

TC pressed a few buttons on his consol as CaptH strolled towards the center of the bridge. She waited as Voyager drifted into view.

"They're responding."

"Onscreen!"

Admiral Janeway's concerned face appeared on the blurred viewscreen. "It's good to see you again Ann."

"Same here Kathryn."

"What happened?"

"We were attacked by the Kraal."

"Do you require assistance?"

"We sure do."

"I'll send my engineering teams over immediately."

There was a slight silence as Janeway talked to Chakotey. CaptH's heart rose as she realized that they were no longer on their own.

There was a squeaking noise. Admiral Janeway looked down, out of the viewscreen, and picked up a tribble.

"A tribble?" Said CaptH, bemused.

"Mr. Kim took the liberty of beaming up your shipmate's pets."

"You mean…"

"Yeah, Adam and his crew are on board."

CaptH's heart rose again at this news. "What happened to their ship?"

Admiral Janeway sighed at this. "It's a long story Ann, I'll tell you about it over there."

"I'm afraid the replicators are broken."

Janeway wavered for a moment. "I'll be there in a few minutes, It's that important."

"I'll be waiting."

---

"And then," said Adam gravely. "The Kraal ships tethered us again and headed for Spacedock. We thought we were all goners."

"Then what happened?" Asked CaptH.

"Kaitz did some tricks with the shields and we lit up like a Christmas tree to Starfleet sensors. PG dropped the shields and Voyager detected us and beamed us over."

"What happened to Spacedock?"

AdmJ and Adam looked at each other. "It was destroyed, along with the planetary shielding."

"Then the Kraal beamed down troops, and destroyed Cairo."

"We had to leave," said Admiral Janeway. "We had no choice."

CaptH sat there with her mouth hanging open. "So you're telling me…Earth has been taken?"

"Yes."

"What now?"

"The Klingons have offered some help; we're going to their space as soon as the Vanguard's warp drive is ready."

"I can't believe this." Said CaptH. "This has never happened, Earth…Earth has always been ours."

"It's strange being on the other side, yes." Said the Admiral.

"Captain," said mcmac's voice through the comm. System. "There's something you have to see."

---

"What is it?"

"It's debris."

"What's so special about it?" Asked Adam.

"It's the debris of a Starfleet runabout."

CaptH swallowed nervously. "Is it…is it the Nile?"

"The Nile?" Said Adam. "What is it doing out here?"

"It's definitely the Nile…I'm also detecting Kraal weapon signatures, traces of blood and skin fragments…it's EWDEE captain."

CaptH's lips quivered. She stood there and looked out of the viewscreen. The wreckage of the Nile floating there silently. She sighed and stormed into her ready room, leaving Adam and Admiral Janeway in her wake, who promptly followed her.

"Ann!" Said AdmJ. "What are you doing?"

"What's going on with EWDEE!" Asked Adam alarmingly.

"It's all my fault!" Screamed CaptH.

"What is?"

"I told EWDEE to go look for Boltini…I had her do something that I should've done!"

"Boltini?"

AdmJ walked over and patted CaptH on the back. "Ann…it's not your fault alright? I've read through records, EWDEE was the perfect person to look for Boltini if he was missing…"

"But I should've done it!" Said CaptH resolutely. "I told Boltini about Kick and he went looking for her, I should've been the one on the runabout!"

"Captain," said Adam. "You couldn't have gone, this ship needed you."

"It doesn't work like that Adam!" Said CaptH. "This is beyond ranks."

"Listen Ann," said AdmJ. "I know how you feel."

"Do you?"

"I do! You think I made all the right decisions in the Delta Quadrant? Well I didn't! And I lost people Ann, I lost those I cherish, but you have to get over that."

CaptH turned and looked at Admiral Janeway in the eye. "Get over?"

"Yes. I know it's sad, but you can't let this get to you. We are Starfleet Captains Ann, we have to deal with this, that's why we're leaders. The thing is to not forget, but not let it eat away at you."

"I…I understand."

"Good."

"It's just…she was a good friend."

"And she always will be…"

"Warp engines back online captain!" Said Jim's voice.

"You heard the man." Said Admiral Janeway.

CaptH and AdmJ shared a meaningful glance and made for the bridge.

"Your orders Captain?" Said Ice as they entered the bridge for the second time.

CaptH looked around her and hesitated. For the first time in weeks she felt safe, with Admiral Janeway and her crew together with her, however fragmented, even though the Vanguard was in tatters and Kraal ships could appear in any moment. She strode to her chair and sat in it, her heart heavy with the events that had happened. This is my life, she thought, there is no going away from it. Admiral Janeway is right, I should've expected this from day one when the war started, heck, when I took the job. She looked up slowly and glanced ahead of her at the ruined bridge, its occupants covered in scars and dust. She inhaled silently and realized that this was not the end; she still had people to protect, her friends, her crew. This is war, not everything will go smooth and she has to accept that.

"Mr. Ice," said CaptH solemnly. "Set a course for Klingon space."

"Aye aye."

---

In a remote corner of Kraal Prime a cave stood, covered in hanging vines and mold. It stood open onto a narrow ravine and no one ever went by there. Once in a while a bird-like creature flew by, making cackling noises as it does, but never touch down on the branches of the trees hiding the mouth of the cave.

On this winter's day something strange happened. A furious wind swept through the cave, ripping leaves and branches off of the trees. Then it stopped.

There was calm silence, quickly followed by a shape emerging from thin air and solidifying into that of a small starship. Its doors opened and out jumped the person who has lived here for almost a year.

"Let them out!" Said GK as he climbed out after Kick.

Kick took out the cylindrical device and pressed a few buttons. In an instant EWDEE and Boltini emerged in a flash of blue light.

"What the…?"

"That was close," said Kick. "Thank goodness I had this mini-transporter buffer with me."

"So that's what that thing is…" said GK.

"We should get that treated." Said EWDEE as she looked at Boltini's shoulder. He didn't budge, instead he starred at Kick in disgust.

"You're a terrorist."

Kick looked up at him. "It's a living."

"You…you're killing people, why?"

"Why?" Said Kick incredulously. "They're killing people back in the Alpha Quadrant-"

"So you think it's fair to kill civilians!"

"Just helping out with the war effort."

"But…"

"This is war Boltini, I know things about these people that you can't imagine."

"Like what?"

"Like that fact that they don't show any propaganda, but all the citizens support this war and does not waver in their hate of the Federation."

"When did you start this?"

"As soon as Section 31 lost their control over me, as soon as I realized that I'm on my own. I think I'm doing pretty well for myself thank you very much!"

There was a tense silence between Kick and Boltini.

"Well, let's go home!" Said GK as he clasped his hands together.

"I'm not going back." Said Kick.

"What! Why not?"

"There's something I must do."

"Blow up more buildings?" Said Boltini sourly.

Kick ignored him. "I need to tell you guys something."

"What is it?" Asked EWDEE.

"There's something strange happening on this planet…ok, let me start from the beginning. I've gone through a lot of data on this planet, libraries, databases, whatever."

"Ok…"

"There's one recurring theme that goes through all of them, that this planet will be destroyed by its own forces."

"Sounds like environmentalists to me." Said GK.

"No, it's more than that. Almost all of the stories on this planet end like that, a great force sweeping over the planet, destroying it."

"That's…odd."

"I know. So then I started researching more vigorously, until I found out about the Grand Myth. It's sort of like the Bible in ancient Earth culture."

"What does it say?"

"It says that the Kraal came from another world and that they conquered those who used to live here. The conquered ones saw this coming and built some kind of…revenging device that will be triggered one day and destroy this world."

"It's…it's a myth, right?"

"I'm not so sure about that…it seems that everyone knows it, and every one believes it to be true. They even put this as the cause of the war with the Federation since they believe they need a new home!"

"Earth…" Said EWDEE.

"What!" Screamed GK. "They're basing a war on stories!"

"Earth had that in the past…" said EWDEE. "So now what?"

"I'm looking for this revenging device, if it's real…then who knows, we might be able to use it to help with the war efforts by destroying the Kraal."

There was silence. EWDEE looked about her and reflected on what she would do. Her home was a war zone, but then again so is this place…

"I'm staying." She said. "If this is true…we could help the Federation a great deal."

"If she stays, I stay." Said Boltini, pointing at EWDEE.

They all looked at GK.

"Well…it will be a lonely ride back home…"

"Come on GK," said Kick.

"…and even though I enjoy the solitude...I guess…I guess I'll stay and look for this…this revenging thingy."

"Great!" Said Kick. "Now…who wants some food?"

---

The setting sun shone upon the face of General Barose as he starred out of the window of Admiral Janeway's office at the skyline of San Francisco. Setting suns always fascinated him, it reminded him of endings, and how this chapter of his planet's history is about to end, and that it's about to end within his life time.

He had rearranged some of the furniture in this office to make it more at home, as it is going to be his home for awhile, at least before he can find a real home down by the ocean. He glanced around quickly and moved a statue of Horac the warrior from the table to the top of the bookcase.

The door chimed.

"Come in."

"Sir?" Said Commander Taurs "I got the progress report."

"Good, do we have contact with the second fleet?"

"No sir, we still don't have it."

"That's strange; they would've been launched by now."

"It is strange; we're sending scouts out to take a look."

"Keep me posted about that…what about the Starfleet ships?"

"30 have been found and destroyed sir, they were all heading for Klingon territory."

"The Klingons are their allies…it's expected. Post more ships along their border."

"Yes sir…oh, and one last thing?"

"What is it?"

"Our troops are facing some resistance inland, in the deserts. We believe that someone is trying to create a resistance group."

"It is to be expected, eliminate them as soon as possible."

"Of course sir."

Taurs turned to leave and silently walked away.

"Wait commander…tell me what you see."

Taurs looked out of the window and glanced at the setting sun. "It is quite beautiful sir."

"It sure is…remember Taurs, this is all ours, this planet, this system, this Federation. We have accomplished our goal at last."

"It is a day for celebrations sir."

"Yes it is...send a message to Kraal Prime."

"What do I tell them sir?"

"Tell them…tell them that their new home is ready."

**To be continued...**


End file.
